How do you determine the pressure ice exerts when it freezes?Such as in sidewalks and curbs.?

Question

At my work place we have walks and curbs with spaces up to an inch wide and maybe two or three inches deep. Also there are places where water gets under the walks and heaves them upwards. Management can't understand the damage this allows.

Answer 1

You answer depends on several variables...ice-1,ice-2,ice-3
see[url]http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/mar97/859148048.Ph.r.html

Answer 2

Hi. This one got me curious.
"In contrast to almost all substances, water has in its fluid state a smaller specific volume that in its solid state. This explains why ice swims on top of water. In contrast, substances which expand during melting, that is, have in their liquid state a smaller specific weight than in their solid state, sink in their melt. Depending on whether a substance sinks or rises in its melt, this shows that it expands or contracts on melting, and then again whether a rise in pressure raises or lowers its melting point. Also cast iron, type metal, bismuth contract on melting. Ice at 0ºC has the specific weight 0.9999. For ice, the specific volume is v2 = 1.0908, for water v1 = 1.001 cm³. From T = 273.2 and l = 79.7 follows p = -.0075, that is, at an increase in pressure by 1 atm the ice melting point drops by 0.0075 ºC below 0ºC. There exists an observations that at 8.1 atm a temperature decrease was 0.059ºC, at 18.8 atm 0.129ºC, while calculations yield 0.059ºC and 0.123ºC (James and William Thomson 1849). Using a pressure estimated at 13 000 atm, Mousson has caused ice to melt while it was being kept at temperatures between -18ºC and 20ºC. (Statement by Clausius.)

So the bottom line is that ice will cause LOTS of pressure depending on the temperature. 13,000 atmospheres is quite a bit!

Answer 3

Also, upon freezing to ice, water expands in volume by about one-tenth and exerts a pressure of 33,000 pounds per square inch. It is this pressure that bursts water pipes in freezing weather.