Evaluation of Composite-Hull Ships Operating in Arctic Ice

• Main Author: Tran,Ryan M
• Other Authors: Naval Postgraduate School Monterey United States
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Marine Engineering; composite materials; ship hulls; naval architecture; ships; PLUNGERS; ARCTIC OCEAN; sea ice; DYSMAS; wave generator; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Lanes; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/AD1026849; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=AD1026849

As ocean temperatures rise, naval exploration around the Arctic Ocean is increasing due to the rapidly melting ice caps. Extensive research is thus being conducted to determine the interaction between ice and steel-hulls in anticipation of opening sea lanes. While the majority of the research focuses on traditional steel-hull ships, limited research has been conducted on composite-hull ships to determine how this material will respond in Arctic waters. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate how composite materials interact with free-floating ice. The program, DYSMAS, conducted a computational parametric analysis to determine how increasing ship velocity, expanding ice block size, adding ice blocks, and changing the hull shape (vertical, tumblehome, and flared) affected the ships performance. The numerical tests reveal that the ice block position has the greatest influence on the effective stress for the ship.Additionally, a second component of this thesis was to design and build a wave generating system. The system was designed and partially built, but an unexpected closure prevented the completion of construction. This project provides the foundation for both experimental and computational research relevant to composite-hull ships transiting through ice fields.