Abstract
Towing is a critical mode of transportation for offshore platforms without self-propelled capability. In Arctic regions, the existence of ice floes might pose additional challenges to towing operations. It is essential to develop a reliable prediction of broken ice actions on towing systems in ice infested waters, especially for large scale floaters, which require assistance for navigation from multiple tugs in coordination. This paper proposes a numerical model for simulating towing process in broken ice, considering the coupled motions of multiple tugs, towed platform, associated with ice floes. The centroidal Voronoi tessellation (CVT) algorithm is adopted to generate a random broken ice field with polygon-shaped ice floes. Ice-ice and ice-structure contacts are simulated through discrete element method (DEM), which are verified by existing data of model tests. A catenary towline model is used to connect tugs and towed platform. A numerical case study of large volume gravity-based structure (GBS) towing is conducted to analyze the dynamics of towing system. General effects of different ice characteristics are discussed to provide insights on towing design and towing safety in broken ice.
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