Numerical simulation of breaking patterns in level ice at ship's bow

This paper develops a numerical method for calculating the repetitive ice breaking pattern and load when a ship advances into a level ice. We focus on the ice bending failure in an ice breaking process in level ice. A circle contact detection technique is adopted to determine the contact point between a ship bow and level ice. The dynamic effect of an ice plate bending is included by using results from fluid-ice interaction FE analysis. The crushing effect is estimated by the simplified formula which considers the geometrical location between the ice edge and ship. The developed method is applied to a straight and oblique initial ice edge. The developed method is able to represent the contact between the ship and the level ice as well as the breaking force.