Methodology to Investigate the Icebreaking Process of Ships With Non-Typical Icebreaking Bow Shapes

For non-typical icebreaking ships the hull-ice interaction process in level ice comprises a combination of many different phenomena which is difficult to be described by existing straightforward approaches. In order to gain knowledge about the level ice resistance of such non-typical hull shapes for operation in ice, a methodology is developed and presented to identify and evaluate the level ice resistance as well as its distribution along the hull of ships with non-typical icebreaking bow shapes with high stem and/or small waterline angles. For this purpose, one ship model has been manufactured and instrumented with several multi-component load cells in the bow region of the waterline as well as with one large six-component load scale between the bow and the stern. Performing resistance model tests at several loading conditions, in model ice sheets of different thickness and at multiple speed values allows obtaining relevant information to meet the goals of the study. The paper focuses on the methodology used for the ice model tests and its analysis. Instrumentation of the model is fully described, together with an overview of the testing matrix and model test observations. Analysis procedure is described in details and applied on a representative test run of the campaign.