Free-Rising Light Sphere

Buoyancy-Driven Ice Breaking

A light sphere that rises by buoyancy to impact ice plates, providing a powerless new approach for ice breaking.

Xue, Yanzhuo · Chen-Xi, Zhang · Wu, Qigang · Tan, Hao · Xu, Xuesong · Ni, Baoyu

Ocean Engineering 2024

Advantages

Numerical results agree well with experiments in the literature

Fracture process and vertical ice load were analyzed in detail

The kinetic energy of the sphere dominates the damage degree