An experiment on ice cutting under high liquid pressure and low temperature

In order to examine dependencies of hydro-pressure and ice temperature in ice cutting performance of a drill for deep ice coring, experiments on ice cutting were carried out under liquid pressure from 0.1MPa to 30MPa at temperatures of 12.3, -40.3^oC and -62.0^oC changing the rake angle of the ice cutter. The results showed the penetration speed of the drill for a given rake angle decreased for at lower temperature and higher pressure; for a constant penetration speed, larger torque was required at higher pressure and lower temperature. Also, the larger the rake angle, the smaller the penetration speed. When the rake angle of the ice cutter was 17^o, the drill performed at the designed penetration speed.