A Comparison of Inverse Models for the Estimation of Ice-Induced Propeller Moments on a Polar Vessel

Full-scale measurements were conducted on the port side propulsion shaft the S.A. Agulhas II during the 2019 SCALE Spring Cruise. The measurements included the shaft torque captured at two separate measurement locations, and the shaft rotational speed at one measurement location. The ice-induced propeller moments are estimated from the full-scale shaft responses using two inverse models. The first is a published discrete lumped mass model that relies on regularization due to the inverse problem being ill-posed. This model is only able to make use of the propulsion shaft torque as inputs. The second model is new and employs modal superposition to represent the propulsion shaft as a combination of continuous modes, resulting in a well-posed problem. This new model requires the additional measurement of the shaft rotational speed for the inverse solution. The continuous model is shown to be more consistent and efficient, which allows its use in real-time monitoring of propeller moments.