Investigations on the ship-ice impact: Part 2. spatial and temporal variations of ice load

Abstract

The ship-ice glancing impact has been the governing scenario for the dimensional design of the bow structures for polar class ships. The present study aims to investigate the spatial and temporal variations of the impact loads by conducting model-scale ship-ice glancing impact tests in ice tank. The ship-ice impact loads were recorded by a matrix-based tactile sensor attached on the bow area of the model ship. To achieve a reasonable simulation on the design scenario described by the Unified Requirements for Polar Class Ships (UR I), a series of methodological validation tests were preliminarily carried out in the Part 1 of this study, and the standard procedures were proposed for the formal tests. The test results provided evidence on the global spatial migration of the ice load along the hull and presented the statistical characteristics of the parabola-shaped ice loading trail for glancing impact scenario. Also, various types of local ice failure processes including pure crushing, spalling and non-simultaneous crushing were classified based on the present tactile sensor data, and comparisons with published field observations were made. Furthermore, a combined approach to generating migrating and non-uniform ice loads was proposed based on Gaussian functions, and the limitations of the present tests were discussed.