An investigation of relative thermal expansion and contraction of ice and steel

We report the results of a number of experiments conducted by changing the temperature of a steel pipe containing ice. We measure the strain in the ice and the temperature at a frequency of 1Hz using sensors based on fiber Bragg gratings. When the temperature of the apparatus changes, the steel and ice expand or contract at different rates, and so there is the potential for the ice and steel to move relative to each other. The steel pipe constrains the expansion of the ice in two dimensions. Further, cohesion and friction between the ice and steel may limit the movement of the ice in the third dimension. The measured strain therefore allows us to make inferences about the interaction between the ice and the pipe. We find a coefficient of thermal expansion in free ice comparable to literature values (around 51x10-6K-1) but that the effective expansion coefficient varies depending on how the ice is constrained. We also report on the results of similar experiments with saline ice.