Historical development of structural ice

This paper will give a historical overview of ice structures with a focus on the construction methods and reinforcement of ice. In cold regions the making of structures is difficult and complex. In those areas ice is easily available but has some structural limitations when it is used as a building material. It is relatively weak and has an extreme creep behaviour. The properties are also strongly dependent on the temperature. For instance ice with a temperature of -12° C is about three times stronger compared to ice with a temperature of -2° C. The structural capacity of ice can be significantly improved by the reinforcement of ice. There is a long tradition in research on the reinforcement of ice but there are only relatively few applications