Tuomo Krn

Karna Research and Consulting,

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland,
Lauttasaarentie 31,
00200 Helsinki,
Finland
e-mail: tuomo.karna@gmail.com
Yan Qu
Xiangjun Bi
Qianjin Yue
Dalian University of Technology
Walter Kuehnlein
Hamburg Ship Model Basin
A Spectral Model for Forces Due
to Ice Crushing
This paper presents a model of dynamic ice forces on vertical offshore structures. The
model concerns a loading scenario where a competent ice sheet is drifting and crushing
against the structure. Full scale data obtained on two offshore structures were used in the
derivation of a method that applies both to narrow and wide structures. A large amount
of events with directly measured local forces was used to derive formulas for spectral
density functions of the local ice forces. A nondimensional formula that was derived for
the autospectral density is independent of ice thickness. Coherence functions were used to
dene cross-spectral density functions of the local ice forces. The two kind of spectral
density functions were used to obtain the spectral density of the total ice force. The
method takes into account both the spatial and time correlation between the local forces.
Accordingly, the model provides a tool to consider the nonsimultaneous characteristics of
the local ice pressures while assessing the total ice force. DOI: 10.1115/1.2426997
Keywords: ice forces, ice crushing, vibrations, spectral model
Background
Numerous researchers have studied dynamic ice forces since
Peyton 1 published his test results. The importance of the dy-
namic icestructure interaction has recently become evident due
to the full-scale measurements reported by Yue et al. 2,3. The
merits and drawbacks of different kinds of methods to evaluate
the dynamic ice actions can be described as follows.
Reddy et al. 4,5 studied how the response spectrum method
could be applied in the analysis of ice forces. This method con-
siders the main dynamic features of the excitation and the re-
sponse. The method is simpler than a direct frequency domain
analysis or the time integration technique. The method can be
dened both for a stationary and nonstationary excitation process.
Therefore, the response spectrum method is widely used in the
seismic analysis of structures.
Sundarajan and Reddy 6 initiated the application of a fre-
quency domain analysis and the theory of stochastic processes in
the analysis of dynamic ice actions. Mttnen et al. 7 applied
both the response spectrum method and the stochastic approach to
study the performance of the Kemi I lighthouse, located in the
Gulf of Bothnia. Subsequently, Reddy et al. 8 assumed that the
ice force is a nonstationary process. Kajaste-Rudnitski 9 studied
how the theory on stationary stochastic processes could be used in
connection with previous direct force measurements. Duan and
Liu 10 discussed the basic equations that would be needed while
applying this theory. Ou and Duan 11 used eld data and pro-
posed an equation for the autospectral density of the total ice
force.
A stochastic analysis in the frequency domain is a useful tool in
conditions where the design should be made against several limit
states. The method can be derived making a direct use of eld
data. On the other hand, the frequency domain method is appro-
priate only for linear systems. This limitation has retarded the use
of this method for ice problems. It is known that a feedback effect
associated to the structural displacements can enhance the total ice
force and also cause severe steady-state vibrations. This is perhaps
the main reason why the initial work described above did not nd
general acceptance.
Mttnen 12 developed a time-integration method to simu-
late the self-excited vibrations caused by sea ice. This phenomo-
logical model makes use of the concept of negative damping,
which was derived using results from uniaxial compression tests.
Subsequently, Eranti 13 and Krn et al. 1416 proposed a few
variants of a timeintegration method where several physical phe-
nomena that are relevant for the ice crushing process and for the
ice-structure interaction were modeled in some detail.
The methods mentioned above omit several concepts of the
modern material research on ice. These include the crack propa-
gation, pressure melting, stickslip phenomenon, and the failure
envelopes. Therefore, Shkhinek et al. 17 initiated a new devel-
opment of phenomenological models where the icestructure con-
tact processes and the three-dimensional constitutive and failure
characteristics of the ice material are considered. Kolari et al. 18
are making further progress by paying special attention to the
unloading features and the three-dimensional failure envelopes.
This development is leading to an increase in the accuracy and
sophistication of the models for ice actions.
Objectives
As discussed above, a simulation of the dynamic icestructure
interaction process is very complex if the feedback effects due to
the structural displacements need to be considered. Direct force
measurements made recently on two offshore structures show that
this feedback effect can be neglected if the ice velocity is moder-
ate to high and if the structures displacements at the waterline are
only a small fraction of the ice thickness. Many offshore struc-
tures are operating under these conditions. Therefore, it is useful
to develop a method that ignores the feedback effects but is oth-
erwise appropriate for a full dynamic analysis of multidegree-of-
freedom offshore structures. The aim of this paper is to develop
such a method by considering ice crushing as a stochastic process.
Ice Excitation as a Stochastic Process
This paper addresses dynamic ice actions in conditions where a
sheet of level ice is drifting against a vertical offshore structure
and is failing by a failure mode known as continuous crushing.
Figure 1 shows the main phenomena that have frequently been
observed in conditions where continuous ice crushing dominates
Contributed by the Ocean Offshore and Article Engineering Division of ASME
for publication in the JOURNAL OF OFFSHORE MECHANICS AND ARTIC ENGINEERING.
Manuscript received March 20, 2006; nal manuscript received September 14, 2006.
Assoc. Editor: Stephen J. Jones. Paper presented at the 23rd International Conference
on Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering OMAE2004, Vancouver, British
Columbia, Canada, June 2025, 2004.
138 / Vol. 129, MAY 2007 Copyright 2007 by ASME Transactions of the ASME
the interaction. The rubble pile that evolves in front of the struc-
ture contains ice fragments of variable size. In the case of very
intensive crushing, pulverized ice particles with diameters from
1 mm to 5 mm extrude from the icestructure contact area. They
are mixed with larger ice fragments. Overall, the diameters of the
ice fragments range from about 1 mm to a value that is approxi-
mately the same as the ice thickness.
Force measurements show that all values of the total ice force
are higher than zero all the time when continuous crushing pre-
vails. This feature can be seen in Fig. 2 where the force signal
concerns a local ice force. The signal was measured in 2001 at the
mooring pole MDP2 that is located at the oil eld JZ9-3 MDP2, in
the Bohai Sea.
Studies of several force records measured at the lighthouse Nor-
strmsgrund in winters 1999 and 2000 and at the mooring pole
JZ9-3 MDP2 in the winter of 2001 show that in this kind of
conditions the local forces may intermittently go to zero. How-
ever, the summation associated with the total force yields a record
where the lowest values are signicantly above the zero level.
Some ice force records, similar to the one shown in Fig. 2 have a
mean level that remains almost constant for a period of about
15 min. Therefore, the ice action can in such cases be considered
as a stationary process.
Figure 2b shows a typical one-sided autospectral density func-
tion of the local ice force. This function has its largest values at a
low frequency and decays smoothly as the frequency increases.
No peaks can be seen at the natural frequencies. This feature is
common in all force signals related to continuous crushing that
did not lead to self-excited vibration. This characteristic of the
excitation provides an important basis for the model that is devel-
oped in this paper.
Use of Experimental Data
The results of this paper are largely based on the full-scale data
that were measured in the winters of 1999 and 2000 at the light-
house Norstrmsgrund. Data obtained on the mooring pole JZ9-3
MDP2 in the Bohai Bai are also used. The lighthouse Fig. 3 is
located in the Northern part of the Gulf of Bothnia. The arrange-
ments of the full-scale tests have been described by Schwarz and
Jochmann 20,21.
On the lighthouse Norstrmsgrund, local ice forces were mea-
sured on nine force panels that covered an area of 144 deg of the
cylindrical waterline area. The waterline diameter of the basic
structure is 7.2 m and about 7.5 m with the additional force pan-
els. The load area of the panels was 1.2 m by 1.6 m. Each panel
had a load capacity of 3000 kN. The force resolution of these
panels was 10 N. The sampling rate was usually set at 30 Hz if
the ice was failing by crushing. Therefore, panel forces can be
studied in a frequency range that has a theoretical upper limit at
15 Hz.
The structure JZ9-3 MDP2 Fig. 4 is used as a mooring pole
and is connected to an oil platform with a 40 m long trestle
bridge. The diameter of the pole is 1.5 m. The overall height is
18 m including a 8 m high underwater part. A total of 12 load
panels were installed on the MDP2 to measure forces exerted by
sheet ice. The panels, which are 0.260.62 m in area, were ar-
ranged in two rows as shown in Fig. 5 to cover the range of the
tide. The load panels cover an area of 120 deg of the cylindrical
waterline area. The signals from the load panels were saved into
les for every 10 min at a sampling frequency of 128 Hz through-
out the winter.
Data on the ice thickness and the ice velocity were needed in
the present analysis. Three concurrent methods were applied to
obtain data on the ice thickness 21. Ice velocities were measured
using a video camera that was calibrated for this purpose.
A total of 72 stationary subevents of continuous crushing at
lighthouse Norstrmsgrund and 7 from JZ9-3 MDP2 were se-
lected for the present data analysis. These events were classied
Fig. 1 Illustration of observed phenomena during continuous
ice crushing 19
Fig. 2 A typical time signal of the local ice force due to continuous crushing of level ice:
a and the corresponding autospectral density function b
Fig. 3 Norstrmsgrund lighthouse
Journal of Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering MAY 2007, Vol. 129 / 139
into 11 groups to study how the ice thickness and the ice velocity
inuence the spectral characteristics of the ice force. An ensemble
averaging procedure was used while estimating the spectral den-
sity functions. The detailed signal analysis was done using Matlab
and state-of-the-art methods recommended by Bendat and Piersol
22 and Stearns 23.
Long-term visual observations that were made on the light-
house Norstrmsgrund show that more than 60% of all loading
events occurred in the crushing failure mode if the ice was thicker
then 0.20 m and if the diameter of sheet ice was at least 50 times
the structure diameter. Flexural and mixed failure modes were
common for thin ice h0.30 m and small ice oes usually
failed by splitting. Dynamic buckling and creep buckling were
also seen occasionally. A variety of ice failure modes were ob-
served when ice ridges were encountered.
Data were collected on the lighthouse in each winter for 3
months, which covers almost the entire ice season. The occurrence
of the events of ice crushing did not show any preference with
regard to the time or environmental conditions within the winter
season. On the other hand, characteristics of the ice crushing pro-
cess changed if the ice was very warm or inhomogeneous. Data
from such events were not used for the present investigation.
The highest static forces on the lighthouse Norstrmsgrund are
expected to arise due to actions of ice ridges. The events of ice
crushing are also severe conditions as they occasionally create
self-exited vibrations. Ordinary events of ice crushing experienced
by the two structures illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4 were used in this
investigation to increase understanding of the effects of ice ac-
tions.
Response Analysis in Frequency Domain
Consider a general case where a multi-degree of freedom struc-
ture is exited on several nodal points. The Fourier transforms Ff
and Uf of the excitation and the response are dened in matrix
notation as column vectors Ff =F
1
, F
2
, . . . , F
N

T
and Uf
=U
1
, U
2
, . . . , U
N

T
where N is the number of the nodal points
dened for the structural model. The complex conjugates of these
vectors are denoted as F
*
and U
*
. The transpose operation on a
general vector or matrix A is denoted as A
T
. The mean levels of
the dynamic component F
n
t of the ice force are assumed to be
zero. Therefore, a separate static analysis needs to be done to
consider the stresses arising due to the average level of the ice
forces.
It can be shown 24,25,22 that the structural response to the
dynamic excitation can be obtained from the equation
G
uu
f = HfG
FF
fH
*T
f 1
This equation shows how the spectral density matrix G
uu
f of
the response is obtained using the spectral density matrix G
FF
f
of the excitation and the frequency response matrix Hf of the
structure. The frequency response matrix as well as numerical
computations implied by this equation can be performed using an
appropriate nite element FE program. Therefore, the main task
here is to dene the matrix G
FF
f of the dynamic excitation. The
spectral matrix G
FF
f shall be derived rst for a set of local
forces acting at the icestructure interface. A transformation will
then be made to obtain the corresponding spectral representation
for the total ice force.
Model of Continuous Crushing
Static and Dynamic Force Components. Figure 6 illustrates
the local ice forces acting on a structure. The icestructure contact
area is divided into a set of local contact points C
n
n=1, . . . , q.
We use an axis system where the ice velocity vector is directed to
the negative x direction. This is then also the direction of the total
ice force. In a dynamic situation the total force has an additional
component in the y direction. Due to this component the dynamic
response of the structure always has a two-dimensional character
in each level of the structure. However, in order to retain clarity in
the derivations, the main focus is on the total force component
Fig. 4 The mooring pole MDP2 at the JZ9-3 oil eld
Fig. 5 Ice load panels on the JZ9-3 mooring pole: a general location of the
load panels; and b detailed arrangement of the 12 ice load panels
140 / Vol. 129, MAY 2007 Transactions of the ASME
acting in the x direction.
Figure 6 indicates that the local forces have two lateral compo-
nents. It was not possible to measure tangential forces on all load
panels in the eld tests. Therefore, only data on the compressive
component F
n
c
t are used in the present data analysis. Each local
force varies about a positive mean level. The local compressive
ice forces are composed as
F
n
c
t = F
n
mean
+ F
n
t 2
where F
n
t is the time-varying component that uctuates about
the mean level. Both the mean level and the dynamic component
depend on the angle of incidence which is denoted as
n
.
The ice forces have traditionally been studied with a main em-
phasis on the maximum peak values that can be identied from
the force records. The maximum values can be obtained by using
statistical estimates
F
n
max
= F
n
mean
+ k
n
3
where k corresponds to a selected probability of exceedence and

n
is the standard deviation of the uctuating force component
F
n
t.
The spectral model to be developed needs as an input the stan-
dard deviation
n
and the mean value of the local ice force, rather
than the maximum value. In order to establish a connection be-
tween the maximum pressure and the two parameters requested,
an intensity parameter is dened to characterize the ice crushing
process. This parameter is expressed as
I
n
=

n
F
n
mean
4
The crushing intensity is obtained from experiments. It varies
typically in the range from 0.2 to 0.5 as shown in Fig. 7. Care was
taken to achieve a sufcient accuracy in predicting the standard
deviation. Figure 2b shows that the main uctuations of the
force signals occur in a period range around 10 s. Therefore, the
minimum length of the time series that was used in the analysis
was selected as 50 s. The minimum sampling rate of the present
data set is 30 Hz. This provides useful information up to the the-
oretical upper limit of 15 Hz. Figure 2b indicates that the sam-
pling rates lower than about 15 Hz would have adverse effects on
the accuracy of the data analysis.
Inserting Eq. 4 into Eq. 3 yields

n
=
I
n
1 + kI
n
F
n
max
5
This equation can be used to dene the standard deviation of
the local forces, assuming that the maximum values of the local
ice force are known. The mean level of the time-varying force is
obtained from Eqs. 3 and 4 as
F
n
mean
=
F
n
max
1 + kI
n
6
Equation 1 was written for a general condition where the
structure is excited on several points. The force and displacement
vectors Ff and Uf of Eq. 1 have the same number of com-
ponents, which provide the exciting forces and the displacement
response at the same physical points and directions. Equation 1
can, therefore, be used directly in the analysis of a wide offshore
structure, which has a exible ice wall. In such a case a subset of
the nodal points of the structural model is dened at the water
level. The spectral matrix G
FF
f will then indicate zero-level
excitations at points that are outside the water level. These zero
values of the full matrix G
FF
f are ignored herein for brevity.
Therefore, the spectral matrix will be treated in this paper in the
form where the diagonal terms G
nn
f are the autospectral density
functions of the local forces F
n
t. Each off-diagonal term
G
nm
fnm provides a cross-spectral density function between
a pair of local forces F
n
t and F
m
t. These functions show how
the local ice forces correlate with each other in terms of the spatial
distance and the frequency.
Autospectral Density Functions. The autospectral density
functions are the main components of the matrix G
FF
f. Figure 2
shows the one-sided autopectral density function of a local force
for a typical condition of continuous ice crushing. The relation-
ship between the autospectral density functions and the variance
of a local force is given by

n
2
=

G
nn
fdf 7
This leads to a nondimensional spectrum dened by
G

nn
f =
fG
nn
f

n
2
8
This transformation is commonly used in wind engineering to
obtain nondimensional spectra for the time-varying components
of a gusty wind. It will be subsequently shown that this nondi-
mensional representation leads to a very simple and unied for-
mula for the autospectral density function of the local ice forces.
Figure 8 shows the ensemble averaged autospectral density
functions for a subevent that lasted for about 20 min. Results are
shown for nine force panels that were measuring forces during the
event concerned. It can be seen that there are only small differ-
ences between the individual functions. This difference can be
neglected. Accordingly, the mean of the nondimensionalized au-
tospectral density functions is shown in Fig. 9.
The characteristics of the nondimensional autospectral density
functions of the local forces were studied in 72 subevents where a
competent level ice was acting on the structure. The results
showed that the ice thickness does not inuence the shape of the
nondimensional spectrum. Signicant differences were seen only
in cases where a thick and nonuniform ice was acting on the
structure. This result can be used to express the autospectral den-
sity function by a simple expression, which does not depend on
Fig. 6 Local forces acting on an offshore structure
Fig. 7 Intensity of the time-varying ice force due to ice crush-
ing. Data from the Bohai Bay
Journal of Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering MAY 2007, Vol. 129 / 141
the ice thickness.
The inuence of the ice velocity was also studied. A detailed
study showed that the ice velocity has practically no effect on the
general shape of the spectral function. However, the position of
the peak of the autospectral function varies in the frequency axis
as the ice velocity varies.
A curve-tting routine of Matlab was used to t ensemble av-
eraged nondimensional autospectral functions with several trial
formulas. Ice conditions with the thickness h varied from 0.20 m
to 0.45 m and the ice velocities from 0.04 m/ s to 0.35 m/ s were
considered. As a result, it was found that the nondimensional au-
tospectral function can be approximated by the formula
G

nn
f =
af
1 + k
s
a
1.5
f
2
9a
a = b
0.6
9b
where k
s
and b are experimental parameters and the dimension of
the velocity is m/s. The values of the parameters k
s
and a were
obtained by the curve-tting routine. The analysis of the ice force
data of the structure JZ9-3 MDP2 shows that the mean value of
the parameter k
s
is 3.24 and mean value of the parameter b is 1.34.
Substituting Eq. 9 into Eq. 8 yields the actual autospectral
function. Figure 10 shows a comparison between the Eq. 9 and
the nondimensional autospectral function that was obtained from
the experiments.
Cross-Spectral Density Functions. Besides the diagonal
terms, off-diagonal terms are needed while compiling the matrix
G
FF
f of ice excitation. These cross-spectral density functions
are obtained by using coherence functions
nm
, which are dened
by

nm
2
f =
G
nm
f
2
G
nn
fG
mm
f
10
The coherence function is useful for the present model because
it explicitly includes both the autospectral density functions and
cross-spectral density functions. Assume that the coherence func-
tion has rst been evaluated for any combinations of two local
forces that are located at a distance r
nm
from each other. The
autospectral density functions can be obtained using Eqs. 8 and
9. Substituting these two results into Eq. 10 yields the magni-
tude of the cross-spectral function. These magnitudes are used to
represent the complex valued cross spectra.
Coherence functions were evaluated for a large number of sub-
events and for all combinations of local forces. Then, a few simple
mathematical functions were studied to nd an expression, which
would have the basic characteristics of the coherence function. As
a result, it was found that the coherence function can be estimated
by

nm
=
1
1 + +
nm
+ e

nm
f
11a

nm
=
r
nm
h
11b
where r
nm
is the distance between two local contact points con-
sidered;
nm
is a dimensionless distance; and the parameters , ,
and are experimental coefcients. The parameter r
nm
is dened
as a distance that is measured along the surface of the structure.
Equation 11 was used to study the basic features of the coher-
ence function. The three-dimensional plot of Fig. 11 shows how
the coherence function varies with the distance and frequency. It
can be seen that the correlation between local forces assumes high
values only at small values of the distance r
nm
. A similar feature
can be seen when the coherence function is studied as a function
of the frequency. The two-dimensional plot of Fig. 12 illustrates
more exactly how the distance and the frequency inuence the
coherence function.
The calibration of Eq. 11 was done in this investigation using
panel data on continuous, brittle crushing where ice failure pro-
cess is nonsimultaneous across the width of the structure. An in-
Fig. 8 One-sided autospectral density functions PSD of local
forces measured on all force panels.
Fig. 9 Mean of the nondimensional autospectral densities
shown in Fig. 8
Fig. 10 Nondimensional autospectral density based on mea-
surement and using the best t expressed by Eq. 9
Fig. 11 Coherence as a function of distance and frequency
142 / Vol. 129, MAY 2007 Transactions of the ASME
crease in the spatial and time correlation of local forces can be
considered by using appropriate parameters in Eq. 11.
Characteristics of the Total Ice Force
Figure 6 depicts that the ice crushing process creates both nor-
mal forces and shear forces on the local contact areas. Consider-
ing Eq. 2, the total ice force F
C
t acting on the structure can be
expressed in matrix notation as
F
C
t = F
CM
+ F
CD
t 12a
where
F
CM
= C +
k
B
T
F
mean
12b
and
F
CD
t = C +
k
B
T
Ft 12c
In these equations, the mean level components of the local nor-
mal forces are included in the column vector F
mean
and the time
varying components F
n
t in the column vector Ft. The column
vector C=cos
n

T
considers the angles of incidences of the local
forces Fig. 6, whereas the column vector B=sin
n

T
is used
to consider the contributions of the local shear forces. This equa-
tion is obtained by assuming that local shear forces arise as fric-
tional forces, which are represented by the kinetic friction coef-
cient
k
.
When the dynamic characteristics of the local forces are repre-
sented by the spectral matrix G
FF
f, the autospectral density
function of the time varying component F
CD
t of the total force is
obtained 24,25,22 by the expression
G
FCD
f = C +
k
B
T
G
FF
fC +
k
B 13
The standard deviation of the time-varying component of the total
force is obtained as

FCD
=

G
FCD
fdf

1/2
14
An estimate of the maximum peak value of the total force is
then given by
F
C
max
= F
CM
+ k
FCD
15
where the coefcient k depends on the time of exposure. Data
analysis made by Krn and Qu 26 shows that in typical short
term events the value of k varies from 3.2 to 5.0. For the aims of
the present paper it is sufcient to assume that k=4.0.
It should be appreciated that the parameter k that is used in Eqs.
3 and 15 is used to obtain an estimate of the maximum peak
force while the structure is exposed to the random excitation due
to ice crushing. Krn and Qu 26 show that the value of k
increases while the time of exposure of an individual loading
event increases. Field data shows that ice crushing is not an er-
godic process in natural conditions. Hence, Eq. 15 cannot be
used to estimate extreme forces such as annual maxima or forces
corresponding a return period of 100 years. The reason for this
statement is that the strength of different ice sheets encountered
by the structure is variable. Forces created by different ice sheets
vary randomly. A separate extreme value analysis is, therefore,
needed to predict long-term maxima. A method of this kind of
analysis is described in Krn and Qu 26,27.
The main result of the theory described in Eqs. 215 is the
external global pressure. This is obtained from Eq. 15 as
p
G
=
F
C
max
wh
16
where w is the width of the structure and h is the ice thickness.
Applications
The theory derived above was used to study characteristics of
the global pressure. A at structure was taken as an example case.
The ice thickness was assumed as h=1.0 m and the ice structure
interface having a width of w was divided to local areas that had
a width of w
L
=1.0 m. The maximum peak pressures F
n
max
/ hw
L

on the local areas were assumed as 1.0 MPa. The crushing inten-
sity parameter of the local forces was assumed as I
n
=0.40 and the
coefcient k of Eqs. 3 and 15 was set to k=4.0. Therefore, the
mean level of the time-varying local pressures is obtained as
0.385 MPa from Eq. 6. A phenomenon known as the edge effect
26 was ignored here. A computer program was used to consider
Eqs. 215 while calculating the global pressure dened by Eq.
16. Calculations were repeated for a large set of structures by
varying the width w of the structure. The results of this example
calculation are shown in Fig. 13 as a function of the aspect ratio
w/ h.
Figure 13 reveals two interesting characteristics of the global
ice pressure. First, the global pressure decreases as the width of
the structure increases. This is an inherent feature of the ice crush-
ing process. The mean level of the global pressure does not
change when the width of the structure increases. However, the
intensity of the time-varying total force decreases with an increase
of the width. Therefore, the global pressure of a wide structure
approaches the mean level of the local pressure, as depicted in
Fig. 13.
This phenomenon is one of the reasons for a size effect that
should be considered in the design of offshore structures. The
theory presented in this paper was used by Krn and Qu 26,27
in a detailed study of the size effect.
The second feature of the results shown in Fig. 13 relates to the
dynamic action effects due to ice crushing. A decrease in the
crushing intensity leads to a reduction in the dynamic response of
the structure. Krn and Qu 28 used the present theory to inves-
tigate how the dynamic magnication varies with the aspect ratio
and the dynamic properties of the structure. In addition, a criterion
Fig. 12 Coherence function
Fig. 13 Application of the present theory for the determination
of the global ice pressure as a function of the aspect ratio w/ h
Journal of Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering MAY 2007, Vol. 129 / 143
was proposed to assess in structural design the conditions where a
conventional static approach should be replaced by an advanced
dynamic analysis.
Discussion
The present understanding of ice crushing as a process creating
forces on vertical offshore structures is based on several series of
laboratory tests. Sodhi et al. 3032 provide a detailed explana-
tion of the physical phenomena involved. The medium scale tests
described by Takeuchi et al. 33,30 have conrmed and further
claried an understanding of this process.
Two pieces of new information on the crushing process arise
from the full-scale data used for this paper. First, forces due to
continuous crushing that were measured in the eld exhibit slowly
varying uctuations at frequencies around 0.1 Hz and lower. Such
force variations are usually not seen in laboratory tests. This dif-
ference has consequences in the prediction of the global pressure
as a function of the aspect ratio as described below.
Second, in contrast to the expectations that were based on ear-
lier research results, local and global ice pressures did not show
any signicant increase at a range of low ice velocities. Associ-
ated with this experience, the phenomenon of alternating ductile-
brittle crushing described by Sodhi 30,31 was absent in ordinary
conditions where steady-state vibrations did not arise. An expla-
nation for this experience is proposed by noting that the light-
house Norstrmsgund is very stiff at the waterline. Kamesaki
et al. 34 indirectly made the same kind of observation in a study
which showed that the global ice pressure increases with the com-
pliance of the structure.
Measured full-scale data was used in the present research to
derive a spectral model of the global ice force and the global
pressure. Sodhi 31 used a slightly different approach to derive an
expression for the global pressure. In his work, local pressures
were used to obtain a negative exponential function, which takes
into account the spatial correlation of the local forces. In the
present investigation, correlation coefcients were replaced by a
coherence function, which considers both the spatial and the time
correlation of the local forces. Sodhis analysis 31, Fig. 14b
indicates that the global pressure due to continuous brittle crush-
ing becomes almost independent of the aspect ratio w/ h in the
range of w/ h8. The results obtained by the present model show
Fig. 13 that the global pressure continues decreasing with the
aspect ratio even at w/ h100. This difference between the two
models arises apparently due to the measured force variations that
have a signicant spatial correlation at a low frequency. This can
be seen in Figs. 11 and 12. Sodhi 31 proposes that a formula for
the total quasi-static force can be established by using the average
value of the time-varying local pressure as a main parameter. Ac-
cording to his results this parameter is the same as the global
pressure for wh. The present results do not support that pro-
posal, as the global pressure is also slightly variable for large
values of w/ h.
It should be noticed here that the application of the present
model is not limited to the evaluation of global pressures. The
autospectral function Eq. 13 of the global force can be used to
evaluate the dynamic response of a structure. Another application
in the derivation of magnication factors was described above.
Conclusions
A spectral model was derived for a dynamic analysis of vertical
offshore structures. The model concerns conditions where a com-
petent sheet of level ice acts on the structure and fails by continu-
ous, brittle crushing. In these conditions the ice failure process can
be considered as a stationary stochastic process. The model is
based on full-scale data that were obtained in the Baltic Sea and in
the Bohai Bay.
The main input parameters of the new model include the mean
value and the standard deviation of the local ice forces. These
parameters are obtained using information on maximum values of
the local pressures and an intensity parameter, which denes the
ratio between the standard deviation and the mean value of the
time-varying ice force. The standard deviation of the local ice
force is used to evaluate the autospectral density functions of the
normal components of the contact forces. These spectral functions
are obtained from an empirical nondimensional spectral function,
which depends slightly on the ice velocity but is otherwise inde-
pendent of ice parameters. Coherence functions were also derived
using the full-scale data on the local forces. The coherence func-
tions are used to dene the cross-spectral density functions be-
tween the local forces. They are needed to consider the correlation
of the local forces both in the space and in time.
Nonlinear effects of icestructure interaction were not consid-
ered in the new spectral model. Therefore, the model has two
limitations. First, the phenomenon of self-excited vibration is not
incorporated. Second, the model does not apply for conditions
where a compliant structure is interacting with the ice sheet and
creates an ice failure mode known as intermittent crushing or
alternating ductile-brittle crushing. This restriction should be no-
ticed because it is deemed that the ice force will increase if the
waterline displacement exceeds a level where the continuous
crushing mode changes into intermittent crushing.
The new model can be used in connection with FE programs to
perform a random vibration analysis for vertical faced structures.
On the other hand the model has also been used Krn and Qu
2629 to nd simplifying expressions of the global ice pres-
sure. In this case, both the width of the structure and the ice
thickness were considered. Dynamic magnication of the external
ice force was considered by dening an equivalent lateral ice
force for quasi-static design calculations.
Acknowledgment
This research was supported mainly by the European Commis-
sion. The main data analysis effort was done within the frame-
work of the FP5 EESD project STRICE Contract No. EVG1-CT-
2000-00024. Data that had been collected in the Baltic Sea
during an earlier European MAST-II project LOLEIF Contract
No. MAS3-CT-97-0098 were used. Conclusive analysis was
made within the EU funded project Standardization of Ice Forces
on Offshore Structures Design Contract No. TREN/04/FP6EN/
S07.31041/503721. The STRICE project was clustered with a
third European project NEST Contract No. ICA5-CT-2001-
50002. Due to this clustering activity, the second co-author had
an opportunity to make most of the data analysis for this paper. In
addition, the Chinese co-authors contributed to the analysis by
providing eld data that was collected in the Bohai Bay. This eld
research has been supported by the China National Offshore Oil
Corporation CNOOC. The support provided by the European
Commission and CNOOC is gratefully acknowledged.
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