ANALYSIS OF SHIP MANEUVERING PERFORMANCES AND ICE LOADS ON SHIP HULL WITH DISCRETE ELEMENT MODEL IN BROKEN-ICE FIELDS

With the development of navigation channels in Arctic regions and oil/gas exploitations in cold fields, the investigation of ice load on ship hull is required urgently in offshore engineering under various ice and maneuvering conditions. In this paper, the discrete element method (DEM) is adopted to simulate the interactions between drifting ice floes and a moving ship. The pancake ice floes are modeled with three-dimensional discrete elements considering the buoyancy, drag force and added mass of current. The ship hull is constructed with triangle elements. The interaction between ice floe and ship hull is determined through element contact detection and impact force calculation. The influences of ice conditions (current velocities and directions, ice thicknesses, concentrations and ice floe sizes) and navigational speed on the dynamic ice forces of ship hull are examined. This work is of reference value to the ship structure design and the navigation security in ice-covered fields reseaches.