As the global climate continues to change, ice floe channels are gradually becoming a common operating environment for icebreakers. It is essential to investigate the ice resistance performance under such conditions. A coupled computational fluid dynamics-discrete element method (CFD-DEM) is used to numerically simulate the navigation of a floating production storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) in an ice floe area. Specifically, CFD is used to solve the hydrodynamics to determine the hydrodynamics of the ship. A numerical model of the ship-ice-water interaction has been developed by considering the collision forces between ice-ice, ship-ice and ice-wall in conjunction with the discrete element method. The results of the numerical calculations are compared with semi-empirical formulae to validate the ability of the method to accurately predict the ice resistance of a navigating ship. Based on this validation, a series of simulations are carried out to investigate the process characteristics of the ship-ice interaction and the effects of different parameters, such as ship speed, ice concentration and ice shape, on the ice resistance. This paper proposes a practical method for predicting the resistance of a ship while navigating in an ice floe channel, which provides a theoretical basis for the optimal design of polar ships.
In recent years, global warming has accelerated the melting of Arctic sea ice and greatly increased the likelihood that the Arctic shipping route will become fully navigable. The Arctic is rich in oil and gas, fisheries and tourism resources and has gradually become the focus of considerable attention by all countries. Polar ships are the main carriers of human participation in polar activities, and the study of the ice-breaking resistance of polar ships is of great importance for polar ship design and ship type optimisation.
The methods used to study the ice load of polar ships mainly include model testing and numerical calculation. Model test is a necessary method to study the ice resistance of polar ships. Zhou et al. (2019) conducted a series of ice tests in an ice pool at the Marine Technology Group of Aalto University to investigate the effects of different speeds and drift angles on ice forces. Zong et al. (2020) used polypropylene (PP) artificial ice to simulate ice floes of random sizes and shapes to investigate the interaction between the ship hull and the floating ice field. Jeong et al. (2020) conducted a series of ice modelling tests in an ice tank at the Korea Research Institute of Shipbuilding and Ocean Engineering (KRISO), discussed the importance of several important factors that may affect the ship's resistance, and developed a prediction equation for the resistance of ice floes on this basis. However, due to the long time and high cost of model testing, numerical methods are required.
