An effective fluid model for the bending failure of level ice

Abstract

In this paper, the efficacy of an effective fluid model (EFM) is studied for replicating the effects that hydrodynamics has on the interaction between level ice, modeled as a semi-infinite Kirchhoff-Love plate, and a downward sloping structure, modeled as a rigid and immobile body. The proposed EFM is based on a distributed frequency-independent added mass and damping coefficient, as well as a damper located at the point of contact with the structure. The optimal value of the three coefficients of the EFM is obtained by minimizing the error of the predicted breaking length and maximum contact force over a range of ice velocities when compared to a true hydrodynamics ISI model that is based on incompressible potential flow. The resulting effective hydrodynamic ISI model has greatly improved performance compared to an ISI model that only accounts for hydrostatics, even when the parameters of the system are changed. Moreover, it is much easier to implement and has significantly faster calculation times than the true hydrodynamic ISI model.