Experimental study on the resistance of a partially submerged flat plate travelling in a field of synthetic ice floes

The resistance of a partially submerged flat plate traveling in a field of synthetic ice floes is investigated experimentally. The experiments are conducted in a towing tank, and the flat plate is installed on a carriage moving horizontally along the tank. In the experiments, the flat plate is 122 cm long, 61 cm wide, and 4.1 cm thick. The ice floes, which are made of polypropylene, are 7.6 cm in length, 7.6 cm in width, and 1.3 cm in thickness. Before each experimental run, the area coverage of the ice floes on the water surface is 90%. In a set of experimental conditions, the submergence depth (D) of the plate is varied from 4.1 cm to 24.9 cm, the pitch angle of the plate (α) is varied from 10° to 30°, and the forward speed (V) of the plate is varied from 0.9 m/s to 3.7 m/s. At a given experimental condition with a specific combination of D, α and V, resistance data is also collected without the presence of ice floes. At the same D, α and V, it is found that the resistance with the presence of ice floes is greater than that without the presence of ice floes. The difference in resistance (ΔR) between conditions with and without the presence of ice floes is found to increase with increasing V. Furthermore, the ratio of the resistance without the presence of ice floes to the resistance with the presence of ice floes increases as V, α and D increase. The scaling of resistance and its correlation with various physical parameters are further explored.