will the top layer of concrete on foamed glass be floating of a layer of melted ice?
No, because ice has a thermal conductivity of 2.22 W/(m K) whereas foamed glass aggregate has a thermal conductivity of about 0.08 W/(m K) .
So the ice/foamed glass interface will stay quite cold and most of the temperature drop will happen across the foamed glass layer, assuming that it is a few meters thick or something. One issue is that in the very long-term you want to actively cool the upper layers of ice because the ice will start to develop a nonuniform temperature distribution.
The insulation may also be a type of concrete with foamed glass as the solid and a cement to fill the voids. This will then be topped with a much stronger layer of concrete. That concrete can be built on. Additionally that top concrete layer can be hollow for added strength and insulation. Think of a square grid of cells for the strength layer and a solid insulation layer underneath of the foamed glass ultralight concrete.
If you want to build a heavy building it may be better to just thicken that concrete topping layer than to penetrate into the ice, as the ice will be very cold (say, −40 degrees C) and you don’t want to melt it. But Maybe there are special materials that will allow this to work. Certainly NOT metals though.
No, because ice has a thermal conductivity of 2.22 W/(m K) whereas foamed glass aggregate has a thermal conductivity of about 0.08 W/(m K) .
So the ice/foamed glass interface will stay quite cold and most of the temperature drop will happen across the foamed glass layer, assuming that it is a few meters thick or something. One issue is that in the very long-term you want to actively cool the upper layers of ice because the ice will start to develop a nonuniform temperature distribution.
Thanks. So will the building foundations be going through several meters of foam glass to the ice below?
The insulation may also be a type of concrete with foamed glass as the solid and a cement to fill the voids. This will then be topped with a much stronger layer of concrete. That concrete can be built on. Additionally that top concrete layer can be hollow for added strength and insulation. Think of a square grid of cells for the strength layer and a solid insulation layer underneath of the foamed glass ultralight concrete.
If you want to build a heavy building it may be better to just thicken that concrete topping layer than to penetrate into the ice, as the ice will be very cold (say, −40 degrees C) and you don’t want to melt it. But Maybe there are special materials that will allow this to work. Certainly NOT metals though.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352710223008562