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Discrete element modeling of ice loads on ship hulls in broken ice fields

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Abstract

Ice loads on a ship hull affect the safety of the hull structure and the ship maneuvering performance in ice-covered regions. A discrete element method (DEM) is used to simulate the interaction between drifting ice floes and a moving ship. The pancake ice floes are modelled with three-dimensional (3-D) dilated disk elements considering the buoyancy, drag force and additional mass induced by the current. The ship hull is modelled with 3D disks with overlaps. Ice loads on the ship hull are determined through the contact detection between ice floe element and ship hull element and the contact force calculation. The influences of different ice conditions (current velocities and directions, ice thicknesses, concentrations and ice floe sizes) and ship speeds are also examined on the dynamic ice force. The simulated results are compared qualitatively well with the existing field data and other numerical results. This work can be helpful in the ship structure design and the navigation security in ice-covered fields.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering Mechanics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116023, China

    Shunying Ji & Zilin Li

  2. National Marine Environment Forecasting Center, State Oceanic Administration, Beijing, 100081, China

    Chunhua Li

  3. North China Sea Marine Forecasting Center, North China Sea Branch, State Oceanic Administration, Qingdao, 266033, China

    Jie Shang

Authors
  1. Shunying Ji
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  2. Zilin Li
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  3. Chunhua Li
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  4. Jie Shang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shunying Ji.

Additional information

Foundation item: The Special Funding for National Marine Commonwealth Industry of China under contract Nos 201105016 and 2012418007; the National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract No. 41176012.

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Ji, S., Li, Z., Li, C. et al. Discrete element modeling of ice loads on ship hulls in broken ice fields. Acta Oceanol. Sin. 32, 50–58 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-013-0377-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-013-0377-2

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