Author(s): Yongkang Liu; Ling Zhu; Zhihan Guo; Junjie Liu; Yuwen Xu; Gaofei Wang
Linked Author(s):
Keywords: Repeated impacts; Plastic deformation; Hull structure; Ice; Rigid body
Abstract: The expansion of Arctic shipping driven by global warming has increased navigational opportunities but also heightened the risk of repeated collisions between ships and floating ice. Such ship–ice interactions can cause significant plastic deformation of ship structures, posing serious threats to navigational safety. As a result, predicting structural damage induced by ship–ice collisions has become an important research topic in both academia and engineering practice. However, existing studies have mainly focused on single ship–ice impacts or repeated rigid body impacts, while investigations into repeated ice impacts remain limited. To address this gap, experimental comparative studies were conducted on ship structures subjected to repeated impacts from ice and rigid body. The objective is to identify differences in structural dynamic responses and damage evolution under the two impact types. Parameters including the k and f are proposed to quantitatively characterize the relationship between structural deformation and peak impact force for an equal number of impacts. The results provide useful insights for understanding ship–ice interaction mechanisms and offer valuable references for the structural design and safety assessment of polar ships.
Year: 2026