Investigation on the transient added mass of sheet ice

Abstract

The experimental study investigates the transient added mass of model ice floes accelerated horizontally along the free surface. The models were accelerated by one of two means: (1) a mass and pulley system to apply a step-wise force, and (2) a spring-powered cannon to apply an impulsive impact force. The kinematics of the models were obtained using high-speed image tracking and an accelerometer sensor. For the step force experiment, four ice shapes consisting of a disk and three irregular circumscribed polygons were tested at three levels of applied load. Equivalent added mass was calculated by applying Newton's Second Law. For the impulsive impact experiment, only the disk was tested using three impact velocities. Conservation of Momentum was used to estimate the mass of the fluid accelerated with the model. Frequency domain calculations were also completed using panel-method based software for comparison of the results.