Arctic Navigation
It is well known that due to the global warming the winters are getting shorter and milder while summer season is extending. As a result, the Arctic ice is getting thinner and more scattered. Recent projections indicate that multi-year sea ice would vanish from the Arctic in 2040s.
This means all sea ice will melt during summer season enabling transpolar navigation in open water conditions during summer season. During the wintertime, the ice will be thinner first-year sea ice that is easier to break and fragment due to waves and wind that will simultaneously make the ice more dynamic. As a result, the operational conditions for ships operating in ice will drastically change from the current situation
Simultaneously, GHG reduction environmental regulations, like EEDI, and in creasing operation times in open water conditions are driving ship designs more towards open water optimized ship designs. These designs differ significantly in hull design from the traditional ice breaking ship designs, and we do not have solid understanding on their performance in ice. At the same time, the shape of the hull is more vertical at the water line, especially at the bow, to reduce the wave and slamming loads, and the local structure is clearly weaker due to expected local loads are lower in open water conditions. However, these lead to breaking ice through crushing that is expected to increase the local loads related to ship-ice interaction. As the ice conditions and ship design are in rapid change towards unconventional ice-going ship designs in new type of ice conditions, ECMAR members believe there is an urgent need to deepen our un derstanding on:
1. Performance of open water optimized vessels in different ice conditions, es pecially in broken and dynamic ice field
2. Ice-induced loads on ship hull and propulsion system on open water optimized ship designs in new ice conditions, especially induced loads on ship hull in wave-ice-ship interaction
3. Structural performance of open water designed ships in ice conditions.
In addition, as access to the Arctic areas opens up to new operators, with limited operational experience, and with the push from the environmental regulations to reduce emissions, leading to the need for optimising transit routes, there is an urgent need to deepen our understanding on:
1. Technologies to characterise the ice to support identification of safe and dangerous ice for shipping;
2. Techniques for interpreting ice data from multiple remote and near-field sources to support operational decision making at a tactical level;
3. Route planning and route optimisation tools to account for navigation in ice.
To deepen our understanding on the per formance of new ship designs and ice loads in new ice conditions, fundamental research related to these topics is need ed. However, it should be recognized that currently existing ships may be operating in these conditions. To secure the safety of operations with already built ships, we should develop hull and propulsion monitoring systems as decision support tools that would assist the operators to avoid dangerous ice conditions. Similarly, improved decision support tools to enhance the efficiency of operations through route optimization are needed. These should be based on understanding the ship perfor mance in different conditions. These tools should be developed more towards pre dictive and preventive scenarios. Current monitoring systems are majorly based on concurrent measurements. The next generation tools should assist the operators to avoid the dangerous situations and find the easy conditions to improve the ef ficiency. This requires basic research on the applicable methods needed for these predictive tools.
Recent years, China has put significant investments to increase their presence in the Arctic and to gain fundamental understanding of ship performance in ice and ice-induced loads. Simultaneously, Russia has by far the most capable Arctic fleet that enables its extensive presence and research in the Arctic regions. Now, United States is planning significant in vestments to ramp up their ship building to improve their presence in the Arctic, and research related to ships in ice. European shipbuilding related to ice breaking ships is known for its innovations and the research related to ships in ice has been a forerunner from many perspectives. However, the funding possibilities for research work related to ships in ice has been very limited in recent years in HORIZON calls. Due to the lack of research funding, the innovations and research related to ships in ice has suffered significantly. If EU wants to stay as a forerunner in these topics in the situation of increased competition and investments in America and Asia, we need more funding opportunities for European Institutes and collaboration within EU Member States in these topics.