Shared-Energy Prediction Model for Ship-Ice Interactions Available to Purchase

Low- and non-ice-class ship-ice interactions are modelled with a shared-energy approach, which typically models the internal mechanics with nonlinear finite element methods. For applications like the preliminary design phase and quick operational assessments of the ship’s structural capabilities, a finite element shared-energy approach can be time consuming and information intensive, therefore, an analytical share-energy algorithm is proposed. The proposed algorithm applies the upper bound energy methodology by equating the external collision energy, determined with the Popov collision model (Popov, et al., 1967), to the sum of the internal ice and structural response energies. The distribution of the internal energy, between the ice and the structure, is determined by iterating through possible shared contact forces until the sum of the internal response energies equals the external energy introduced into the system. The ice-crushing energy is modelled with Daley’s (1999) energy based ice collision force models, and the internal structural strain energy is modelled through a combination of classical beam theory and design of experiments methodology. The proposed model is benchmarked against a finite element ice wedge-ship grillage structure interaction.