Comparison Study Between Design Ice Load and Actual Measured Ice Load During Ice Trial of Arctic LNG Carrier

The activities related to exploitation for oil and gas in the Arctic areas increase significantly. In order to transport increased resources in the Arctic areas, large Arctic commercial vessels such as gas carriers, oil tankers, bulk carriers, etc. are needed for mass transportation. In Arctic area, the ice load is the main factor of environmental load acting on Arctic vessel. The ice load is increased with the enlargement of vessel. The largest Arctic commercial vessel was built by DSME in 2016. The vessel was delivered after completion of ice trial in March 2017. The size of Arctic LNG carrier is larger than any other Arctic vessels have been constructed so far. The ice load monitoring system was installed for ice load measurement and structural safety of ice navigation of this large LNG carrier. This paper is concerned with comparison between estimated ice load for structural design and measured ice load for vessel navigation in Arctic area. Design ice load was calculated according to prescriptive rules of the Classification societies. Actual ice load during ice navigation was measured from ice load monitoring system. The arrangement of sensors in the monitoring system was determined for the precise measurement of ice induced loads acting on the hull. FE analyses were also carried out to compare between estimated ice load and measured ice load considering complex structural details in the Arctic LNG carrier.