Wave Induced Motions of Irregular Shaped Ice Mass close to Fixed Structure

Abstract

Small ice pieces can pose significant threat to offshore platforms located in ice covered waters. Impact load due to iceberg and small ice fragments is important design consideration of such structures. The impact velocity and near vicinity hydrodynamic interaction significantly effects the impact load. In recent studies, Sayeed et al. [19,20] . [20]. The stationary wave profile is found to be most influential factor on kinematics of the approaching ice mass. investigated the hydrodynamic interaction of simple shaped ice masses heading towards a fixed platform in regular waves. It was found that the motions of the approaching ice mass is influenced by the standing wave and the distance to wave length ratio dictates the ice mass motion due to wave impact. In this paper, previous experimental data collected by Sayeed et al. [18] is reanalyzed to examine the wave kinematics of an irregular shaped ice mass heading to a fixed structure. Surge and heave velocities plotted against separation distance / wavelength show similar trends as observed by Sayeed et al