Ship Resistance When Operating in Floating Ice Floes: A Derivation of Empirical Equations

With the effects of global warming, the Arctic is presenting a new environment where numerous ice floes are floating on the open sea surface. Whilst this has unprecedentedly improved Arctic shipping navigability and brought about significant opportunities, the interaction of such floes with ships has yet to be understood, thus hindering appropriate assessment of corresponding ship performance. This paper presents work on developing empirical equations to estimate the effects of such floes on ship resistance. Based on extensive data from validated computational simulations, the ice-floe resistance has been shown to correlate with ship beam, ship speed, ice concentration, ice thickness and floe diameter, and the regression powers of each the parameter on resistance are ascertained for a container ship. This leads to an empirical equation that can immediately predict ice-floe resistance in a given condition. The proposed approach has the potential to facilitate propulsion power estimates for Arctic shipping, as well as providing valuable insights into ship design for these environmental conditions.