Modelling of a DP drillship advancing in managed ice fields: comparison between numerical simulations and ice basin tests

• Published in: International Journal of Offshore and Polar Engineering
• Main Authors: Islam, Mohammed, Sayed, Mohamed, Watson, David
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers 2021
• Subjects: Canada; Newfoundland
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.17736/ijope.2021.jc834; https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/eng/view/object/?id=5f80bb23-b6b5-4c6d-868b-03eeb12caf9a; https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/fra/voir/objet/?id=5f80bb23-b6b5-4c6d-868b-03eeb12caf9a

The present paper reports on comparisons between results from ice basin tests and numerical simulations. The tests were conducted in the model ice basin of the National Research Council Canada in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Those tests examined the performance of a vessel controlled by a dynamic positioning (DP) system in managed ice conditions at a scale of 1:40. A numerical ice dynamics model was used to simulate ice basin test conditions. The results indicate that surge direction thrust and ice force are in good agreement. Ice basin measurements, however, produced higher sway-direction ice forces and yaw-direction moments. It appears that the treatment of sidewall boundaries and the resulting confinement of the ice cover may have contributed to that discrepancy. An additional contribution may be due to differences between the DP algorithms, which were used in the numerical simulations and ice basin tests. Numerical simulations also examined the role of floe shapes. The results indicate that floe shapes obtained from field observations reduce sway-direction ice forces and yaw-direction moments below values obtained when using near-square floe geometries. Peer reviewed: Yes NRC publication: Yes