Numerical simulation of ice loading characteristics of ships in a wave-current environment in a broken ice area

Abstract A numerical simulation technique with CFD-DEM coupling is used to simulate a full-scale KCS model sailing in the pancake ice region. Based on the actual polar information, the Stokes fifth-order wave model is selected. The pancake ice particle of two scales is established based on the DEM, and the corresponding broken-ice region is generated. The contact and collision problems of ice-ice and ice-wall (ship) were analyzed by solving the Hertz-Mindlin model, and the monitored data were processed and summarized. The results show that the ice load on the ship is a repetitive “loading-unloading” process, and the peak ice load curve is characterized by segmented and concentrated fluctuations. In terms of ice parameters, the pancake diameter has a great degree of influence on the crushed ice loads, and the size of the crushed ice loads increases with the diameter of the crushed ice particles.