Ice Pressure Prediction Based on the Probabilistic Method for Ice-Going Vessels in Inland Waterways

With increasing need to utilize inland waterways (IWW), the design for IWW vessels gains attention both from a transport efficiency and an emission control point of view. The primarily issue is to estimate the ice pressure acting on the ship hull for inland waterways. Ice information for Lake Mälaren is extracted and analysed in this work. Since the ice properties have great influence on the impact load, they are studied based on empirical formulae and are calibrated by reference data. The ice impact is then predicted for an inland water barge. Probabilistic method is selected to derive the load based on available field test data. Several parent datasets are chosen, and different design strategies are implemented to evaluate the ice impact load and investigate the influences from exposure factors. The paper finds that the design curve of α = 0.265a^−0.57 can be used for Lake Mälaren. The approach itself introduces a possible way to investigate loads on ice affected IWW.