Author(s): Junji Sawamura; Shinji Kioka; Hiroto Mizushima
Linked Author(s): Junji Sawamura
Keywords: Ice drop test; Ice impact force; Structural response; Analytical method; Numerical simulation
Abstract: This paper presented a medium-scale ice drop test. Plate ices dropped onto an acrylic flat plate of which both side edges were tightly fixed by an aluminum frame. The ice collision force acting on the flat plate was measured by a load cell installed at the bottom of the aluminum frame. The responses of the acrylic plate were measured by the strain gauges installed at the underside of the plate. As the ice conditions, the ice mass and shape were varied and the ice collision speed was constant. A relationship between the ice collision conditions and the ice impact force (the structural response) were investigated. It was shown that the ice impact force and the structural response correlated strongly with the ice mass and the ice contact area. The measured ice impact forces were compared with those obtained by a simple analytical model and the FE (Finite Element) numerical simulation. The former is a single-degree-of-freedom system that consists of a spring, a damper, and a mass. The calculated ice forces are slightly larger than the measured ones. The tendency of the force in the different ice conditions showed good agreement with the experimental ones. Since the ice impact force is strongly affected by the structural response, the structural response has to be accurately included for a good estimation of the ice-structure collision. The preliminary numerical simulation of the ice impact test was conducted using a commercial software Abaqus/Standard 2021. The ice and the structure are modeled as elastic body. The ice failure is not considered in the ice model. The numerically computed ice impact force exceeds those obtained with the experiment and the analytical model. The ice failure has to be accounted for when precisely quantifying ice impact force.
Year: 2024