Numerical investigations of ship-ice interaction and maneuvering performance in level ice

•A numerical detection algorithm and a continuous process are introduced for simulating ship-ice interaction.•A flexural ice plate model is developed.•Effects of buoyancy and clearing on sway and yaw motions are presented, a 3DOF ship maneuvering model is applied.•Validation is carried out by comparing to model/full-scale data of a CCG R-Class icebreaker.

This paper presents a solution to the ship-ice interaction problem solved in the time domain by a combined method involving numerical simulations and semi-empirical formula. The breaking process of an intact level ice by an advancing ice breaker has been investigated by a 2D numerical method. An interaction detection technique has been introduced. In order to compute the ice load, a pressure-area relationship for the ice was applied, and a flexural ice plate model was developed. A 3-degree-of-freedom (3DOF) model was adopted to simulate ship maneuvering in level ice. The proposed numerical method has been validated by using the experimental results of an 1:20 scaled CCG R-Class icebreaker model and the full-scale turning circle results.