Superstructure spray and ice accretion on a large U.S. Coast Guard cutter

Abstract

Superstructure spray flux and ice accretion were measured on a 115-m Coast Guard cutter in the North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea during February and March 1990. This was the first such measurement cruise on a large ship; all previous measurements were on trawlers and patrol boats. Spray event duration averaged 2.73 s, somewhat longer than events measured on a 35-m Soviet trawler. The drop number concentration of most spray clouds was high, ranging from 2.0 × 10 5 to 3.0 × 10 5 drops m −3. Spray cloud drop sizes ranged from 14 to 7700 μm, with a geometric median of 234 μm. Spray cloud liquid water contents had a very large range with a mean of 64.1 g · m −3. Ice accretion rates were low, but sufficient for observing greater ice thicknesses on decks than on bulkheads. The ice accretion process was also found to be extremely dynamic, alternately accreting and ablating several times before reaching maximum thickness. No simple relationships were found between time-series of ice thickness during two icing events and controlling environmental parameters.