Azimuthing propulsion ice clearing in full scale

Propeller jets can be used to break level ice, when the ship is stationary or moving. The amount and capacity of breaking or clearing the ice is based on the thrust of the propeller, angle between jet axis and water plane, and thickness of the ice. Current analysis is based on the full scale experiment image data and propeller flow parameters. The experiments performed in the month of March 2017, in which ice is being cleared at different thrust, pod angles and area is approximated from images, which represents that how much a particular thrust and pod angle of propeller is capable of breaking and clearing ice at stern of the ship. The data is of icebreaker “Polaris” which is a Finnish icebreaker of ice class PC4, Diesel-electric propulsion having three Azimuth propeller two at stern and one at bow. Study of 2 × 6500 kW (stern)-ABB Azipod propeller jet and its effect on clearing ice sheet is examined in this analysis. Starting from the image and power data area, thrust, open water and mix water distances of each frames were calculated. Ice clearing area depends on the power, ice thickness, heel of the ship and angle between jet axis and water plane. The ice thickness that are used in experiments were confirmed from surveillance videos. Only those results are considered to be valid in which experiments starts from the initial state (unbroken complete ice sheet). Polar plots were made which describes the variation of ice clearing area with respect to radius and angles of the region.