Iceberg Impact Simulation on Offshore Structures

Abstract

In 2012 TechnipFMC, Cervval and Bureau Veritas initiated a common development program to offer a new tool for the design of offshore structures interacting with ice combining a variety of models and approaches. This numerical tool called Ice-MAS (www.ice-mas.com) is using a multi-agent technology and has the possibility to combine in a common framework multiple phenomena from various natures and heterogeneous scales (i.e. drag, friction, ice-sheet bending failure, local crushing and rubble stack up). The current development phase consists of the determination of the forces generated by an iceberg during an impact on an offshore structure. This paper will provide an overview of the latest Ice-MAS development. It will introduce the main functionalities of the simulation tool and the different options for modelling an offshore structure. It will then focus on the modelling approach used for an iceberg, the calculation of the different hydrodynamic coefficients and their variability according to the separation distance from the structure. The model used to compute the impact load will be detailed, including the local crushing behavior which is simulated by a pressure-area correlation.