Prediction of Ice-Resistance Distribution for R/V Xuelong Using Measured Sea-Ice Parameters

Increasing human activity in polar areas is making ice-going ships more indispensable in multiple operation scenarios. An improvement in ice-resistance prediction, which cannot be performed without accurate ice parameters, will promote the development of hull design and operational safety in ice-infested waters. The Nataf transformation is applied to generate correlated pseudo-random numbers which represent ice parameters; then, as a numerical method, the circumferential crack method is introduced to calculate the ice resistance of R/V Xuelong in level ice. The main factors which may have a large influence on simulated ice load are studied. The simulation results show that the Burr distribution is the most suitable model to describe the distribution of ice resistance calculated and ice-force amplitude concentrated at a lower level. The statistical results are also discussed and compared with similar research through empirical formulas and Monte Carlo methods. The present simulation can obtain more detailed information during the icebreaking process compared to similar research: the ice force at each time step is achieved; the key ice-force amplitude can be collected, which can benefit studies on hull structure; and potential stress generated by sea ice can be predicted. The present numerical tools and simulation results can provide a reference for ice-going ships sailing in level ice in most scenarios with regard to ice resistance and operational safety.