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Recent Progress towards Improving Ice Control and Ice Resistant Safety Boom Designs

Author(s): Razek Abdelnour; Matthew Kilmer; Berard Kassis; Elie Abdelnour; George Comfort

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Keywords: Lake Ice; Ice-Structure Interaction

Abstract: In this paper, we will examine recent developments that were accomplished to improve future designs of ice control booms and ice resistant safety booms. Recently, challenges were encountered during the boom design process that resulted in the development of innovative solutions to ensure the booms are built and installed to operate reliably and efficiently during their entire lifespan. Design tools were developed and presented in past 25 years and described in past papers. In the past two years, Geniglace continued to advance the design of booms, as will be discussed in this paper. 1) The first one is an instrumented buoy designed to measure the ice forces present on a boom anchor. In addition to providing ice force data for improving future boom design, it sends, in real time, the ice load on the boom to the operator of the hydroelectric plant. When the load exceeds the safe load of the boom, action could be taken to reduce the flow in the canal to minimize the chances of breaking the boom. 2) The second development is a lighter ice resistant synthetic pontoon. The pontoons are customized to resist the site-specific ice tension forces expected. The synthetic pontoon is rotomolded and made from LLDPE or HDPE plastic. The pontoons are foam filled and have an internal steel beam used to resist the tension of the boom between two anchors. These booms are lighter and are easier to deploy in remote sites. 3) The third development is a boom anchor installation in a deepwater northern environment. A challenge in installing a boom anchor is when the dam reservoirs have a water depth of 30m or more. In-water drilling is generally preformed from a barge, the excessive water depth and large waves created in this reservoir rendered drilling from a barge not possible. Instead, the drilling was done during the winter from the ice cover. The ice thickness was thickened by flooding the ice to reach a thickness for safe drilling off the ice platform.

DOI:

Year: 2022

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