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Researchers from the Higher Technical School of Naval and Oceanic Engineering of the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPCT) are working on the study of ship navigation in areas with free surface ice.

For the experiment, which is part of a national research project, they are using a scale model of the Hesperides Oceanographic Research Vessel.

The main objective of this project, which will last over the next three years, is to reproduce the navigation conditions of the vessels when ice surfaces are crossed and provide sufficient data for the validation of numerical codes that allow the optimization of vessels for This kind of conditions.

The Principal Investigator, José Enrique Gutiérrez, explains that the project is part of a project coordinated in collaboration with the International Center for Numerical Methods in Engineering (CIMNE).

In that sense, the experimental tests are carried out in the Channel of Hydrodynamic Experiences of the Polytechnic University of Madrid, where in order to reproduce the navigation conditions paraffin blocks are used to simulate ice sheets without maintaining low temperature conditions and special facilities

For the experimental campaign they have chosen the model of the hull of a significant ship such as the BIO Hesperides in order to simulate the behavior of the ship in this type of environment.

"This has never been carried out in Spain, so we do not know what results we will be able to obtain," says the Principal Investigator, who also explains that the idea of ​​conducting this study is motivated by global warming, which causes thaw and the opening of the North Sea Route.

"Large shipping companies can save up to 7,000 nautical miles if they choose to go this route instead of the Suez Canal and that is something that positively affects the cost of transport," he adds.

Source: UPCT