| Abstract | Activities like shipping and harvesting ocean energy are increasingly being conducted in harsh, ice-rich waters. Analytical and numerical models, validated against full-scale and model testing results, are vital to developing new technologies and understanding issues posed by operating in such environments. This paper presents the development and initial validations of a simulation performance laboratory, SPLASH, for modelling complex ice, wave and current interactions with dynamic positioning (DP) platforms and marine autonomous surface ships (MASS). SPLASH has a modular architecture, with components with well-defined interfaces tied together by a central controller. The core component is the numerical engine that models the floating system (e.g., a ship), with active propulsion and steering systems, and the complex environments, including current, waves and rigid-body ice pieces. The central controller can interface with external controllers to govern the movement of the floating system.
In the current research, two case studies were carried out: the first aimed to model and validate a complex ice-structure interaction scenario involving an ice field comprised of over 75,000 ice pieces, including brash ice, and a DP-controlled ship operating under various configurations; the second focused on modelling wave-ice-DP-ship interaction scenarios, where both regular and irregular wave are modelled in the presence of an ice field with a large number of ice pieces. The preliminary results show promise in offering a platform for accurately and efficiently assessing advanced control systems for DP/MASS operations in complex ice-wave-current environments. |
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