Ice Issues, Porosity, and Snow Experiments for Dynamic NEO and Comet Modeling

• Published in: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Vol. 822; no. 1; pp. 566 - 582
• Main Authors: FURNISH, M. D., REMO, J. L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-05-1997
• ISSN: 0077-8923; 1749-6632
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1997.tb48368.x

Category 0 NEO bodies, such as many comets, appear to be comprised largely of porous ice. Quasi‐static and dynamic properties of ice are expected to control the corresponding properties of Category 0 NEO material. These properties depend on temperature, strain rate, and possibly sample history. Corrections must be made for porosity and the presence of impurities such as silicates. These corrections reflect the added complexity of energy partitioning in a porous, inhomogeneous material as well as added P·ΔV work during compression. A study of the dymanic (shock) properties of natural snow over the stress range 0–4 GPa is described. Comparison of the results of this study with computational modeling suggests that existing ice models with introduced porosity are applicable in some regimes, while water models with introduced porosity provide better fidelity in other regimes.