Sea ice floe impact experiments

• Main Authors: Frederking, Robert, Timco, Garry, Reid, Scott
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: National Research Council of Canada 1999
• Subjects: Canada; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.4224/12340959; https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/eng/view/ft/?id=b9830002-1f72-4bb7-a915-c647ac4a0939; https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/eng/view/object/?id=b9830002-1f72-4bb7-a915-c647ac4a0939; https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/fra/voir/objet/?id=b9830002-1f72-4bb7-a915-c647ac4a0939

The impact of ice floes can be an important part of the design considerations for structures placed offshore in Eastern Canada. A laboratory test program has been performed to investigate the force levels due to the impact of an isolated floe with a structure. In these tests, large floes of sea ice (up to 14 tonnes) were grown in an ice tank, and they were accelerated to impact an instrumented test structure. The load level and local pressure during the impact were measured. Fifty-two impact tests were conducted. The maximum load was a function of the shape of the impact interface. The highest load levels measured were on the order of 50 kN for ice floes with speeds of 0.2 m/s. This report presents a full description of the test procedures and provides the results of the tests. NRC publication: Yes