The present paper proposes a numerical model for the ice-ship interaction (ISI) in oceans. Ice is assumed to be a homogeneous isotropic material, which is modeled by the elastic meshfree particle method, peridynamics (PD), which has the advantage of dealing with fracture problems and has been successfully applied in ice simulation. The ship hull is regarded as a rigid body without deformation; hence, a continuous contact detection algorithm is developed and embedded into the PD to deal with the contact process. The numerical implementation of the ISI model is analyzed using FORTRAN language. Then, the ISI model is verified using a case of an icebreaker breaking level ice. The icebreaking pattern and icebreaking force are compared with the experimental data and empirical results. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the ISI model in predicting the icebreaking process.
The increasing demands for Arctic navigation activities, scientific investigation, resource exploitation, and military applications has significantly increased the importance of polar ships and brought forth increasing demands on their ice navigation performance. The numerical investigation of ice-ship interaction (ISI) plays a vital role in evaluating ship performance and updating ship design processes (Gao and Erokhin, 2020). However, the vagaries of ice conditions in the Arctic region and the complex engineering mechanics of ice that varies with the environment make research on Arctic navigation challenging. This underlines the importance of representing a more reliable ice structure interaction model to study icebreaking and ice loads.
Field tests and model tests of ISIs have been widely carried out and are readily available in the literature (Shi, 2002). Although the experimental method plays an irreplaceable role in measuring ice resistance and observing ice damage mode, the preparation and implementation of the field test are time-consuming, labor-intensive, and expensive. Therefore, a numerical model is necessary for analyzing the ice behavior of structures.
