I think there’s some underlying misunderstanding of material science here. You have some fibers, OK, and they have some amount of net strength. Distributing them in ice or whatever at a really low concentration doesn’t increase the total amount of strength those fibers have. It’s not better than putting those fibers together with less filler, unless:
you specifically want only a little bit of extra tensile strength for a lot of material
you want to keep viscosity of a thermoplastic or resin sufficiently low during processing
you’re getting much better dispersion at lower loading
Adding sawdust to ice, you’re not going to get more additional strength per wood than just using good lumber or plywood.
Yes I get that the increase in tensile strength is probably going to be proportional to the percentage of fiber added, but there’s no need to go to 14% just because that was the original pykrete formula. Maybe you only need 1⁄3 of the strength. Or maybe limiting creep is more important. Or maybe you just want to make it less brittle.
I just haven’t got the data for the properties of pykrete at lower temperatures and I don’t understand how it affects creep rates.
Since the water is almost free you might be able to choose between X meter thick pykrete or 3X meter thick 1/3-strength material.
I also don’t fully understand understand what properties you’re actually going to need.
I think there’s some underlying misunderstanding of material science here. You have some fibers, OK, and they have some amount of net strength. Distributing them in ice or whatever at a really low concentration doesn’t increase the total amount of strength those fibers have. It’s not better than putting those fibers together with less filler, unless:
you specifically want only a little bit of extra tensile strength for a lot of material
you want to keep viscosity of a thermoplastic or resin sufficiently low during processing
you’re getting much better dispersion at lower loading
Adding sawdust to ice, you’re not going to get more additional strength per wood than just using good lumber or plywood.
Yes I get that the increase in tensile strength is probably going to be proportional to the percentage of fiber added, but there’s no need to go to 14% just because that was the original pykrete formula. Maybe you only need 1⁄3 of the strength. Or maybe limiting creep is more important. Or maybe you just want to make it less brittle.
I just haven’t got the data for the properties of pykrete at lower temperatures and I don’t understand how it affects creep rates.
Since the water is almost free you might be able to choose between X meter thick pykrete or 3X meter thick 1/3-strength material.
I also don’t fully understand understand what properties you’re actually going to need.