Numerical simulation of an ice-strengthened bulk carrier in brash ice channel

In this paper, the CFD-DEM coupling numerical method was applied to study the ship resistance of a certain type of ice-strengthened Panama bulk carrier in the brash ice channel. The ship-water interaction is established under Euler framework, and the ship-ice interaction is realized by means of the DEM method under Lagrange frame-work. The DEM ice particles modelling and the establishment of numerical brash ice channel were firstly carried out with reference to the HSVA ice tank test image and test parameters. Next, the influence of DEM ice particle shape on contact force and ship-ice interaction was studied. After that, the influence of the one-way coupling and two-way coupling computational scheme between fluid and particles on the calculation accuracy and the interaction phenomenon was studied and analyzed. Finally, the ship-ice interaction process and mechanical behavior of ship and particle interaction in the brash ice channel was simulated, and the numerical results were compared with the experiment of HSVA ice tank. The results show that the CFD-DEM coupling numerical method which takes full account of the effect of ship-water and the interaction between fluid and particles, can well simulate the phenomenon and process of ship-ice interaction, and compared with the experimental results, the average error of the numerical prediction is about 5.03-5.23% for ICE-1 case with one-way and two-way coupling. The CFD-DEM coupling numerical method includes water resistance, which improves the prediction accuracy of the alone DEM calculation method. The research work in this paper can provide a reference for the numerical prediction of navigation process of ships in the brash ice channel.