Author(s): Einar Rødtang

Linked Author(s):

Keywords:

Abstract: Predicting the forces caused by ice breakup on bridges is important because they are crucial for predicting erosion and sudden catastrophic failure. Simulator for Artic Marine Structures (SAMS) is a software package developed at the Centre for Research-based Innovation – Sustainable Arctic Marine and Coastal Technology (SAMCoT). SAMS was developed primarily to predict ice floe structure interactions in a marine environment. This paper aims to evaluate the parameter sensitivity of SAMS ice force prediction when predicting ice forces on bridge piers in small steep rivers. From a simulation point of view there are several key differences between small steep rivers and open marine environments, including river bed and bank shear forces and river slope. Furthermore, little is known about initial floe size distributions in such rivers. Few models currently provide satisfactory predictions of river ice forces on infrastructure, and those that do exist are developed and tested for moderate gradient large rivers and may be largely inapplicable to small and steep rivers. It was found that SAMS has a high sensitivity to the random seed used, low sensitivity to ice floe concentration and a linear sensitivity with increasing absolute variability to ice thickness.

DOI:

Year: 2020