Longer duration ice releases

[Fogane]

I've been playing with ice recently and observing it's melting rate and then remembered a demonstration I saw on television once.

Icecrete (or Pykrete) is formed by adding sawdust or wood pulp to water then freezing. The resulting ice is much much stronger and melts a lot slower than regular ice.

Could be a useful thing to someone who wants to push the duration up without having huge blocks of ice.

14% is the quoted figure of sawdust in Pykrete, I'm guessing that's what was worked out experimentally to be the strongest. Different ratios should in theory give different properties. I don't know how long it takes to melt, an ice cube that lasts a week or two may not be much use, but an ice cube that lasts twice as long could be a boon. I will endeavour to do some experiments with it.Fogane38701.3630671296

[tiedrubberdoll]

If I recall correctly, Pykrete was invented to build an aircraft-carrier that was made entirely out of ice, that would operate in the polar regions, it is so strong that jets can land on it, without it rupturing. The project never got finished and left the US with a huge financial hangover.

[cats]

And the impatient can add table salt to their ice cube or ice block water. See Freezing-point depression

More information on Pykrete.