Rheological measurements of the viscoelastic properties of snow

In order to determine the viscoelastic properties of snow, torsional shear measurements were performed in a cold laboratory with a stress-controlled rheometer. Small samples (60 mm in diameter and about 7 mm thick) of natural snow collected from the nearby study plot were loaded in simple shear with monotonically increasing stress (stress ramp) and with sinusoidally varying stress (oscillation). The dynamic measuring method allows the deformation process to be separated into a time-independent part (elastic) and a time-dependent part (viscous). The applied torque is sufficiently small to prevent destructive deformation, generally permitting the true viscoelastic properties of a sample to be obtained over a large range of frequency and temperature. The limit strain for linear viscoelastic deformation was found to be very small (0.5-5 x 10(-4)). Experiments performed beyond the linear range imply important textural changes (damage, breaking of bonds). The large strain reached during stress-ramp experiments showed that the ongoing damage process must be balanced by a healing (sintering) process. The usefulness of a rheometer was proven. It is a precise method for measuring with high reproducibility the rheological parameters of snow, and data gained with it improve our understanding of the deformation process under shear loading.