Abstract
The Korean icebreaking research vessel "Araon" performed four sea trials in the Arctic and Antarctic Seas. The ice properties, such as the ice thickness, floe size, ice strength, and power of the vessel were quite different in these trials. To compare the speeds of ship with the same ice strength and power, the AARC (Arker Arctic Research Center) method is used with a vessel power of 10 MW and an ice strength of 630 Pa in this paper. Based on the analysis results, the speed of the ship was 1.62 knots (0.83 m/s) with a 1.02-m ice thickness and 2.5-km floe size, 5.3 knots (2.73 m/s) with a 1.2-m ice thickness and 1.0-km floe size, and 13.8 knots (7.10 m/s) with a 1.1-m ice thickness and 200-m floe size. The analysis results showed that the ship speed and floe size have an inversely proportional relationship. Two reasonable reasons are given in this paper for the final result. One is an ice breaking phenomenon, and the other is the effect of the ice floe mass. For the breaking phenomenon, the ice breaking force is very small because the ice floe is not breaking but tearing when a ship is passing through a small ice floe. Regarding the effect of the ice floe mass, it is impossible for a ship to push and tear an ice floe if the mass of the ice floe is too large compared to the mass of the ship. The velocity of the ship decreases when the ice floe has a large mass and a large size because the ship has to break the ice floe to move forward.
