Investigation of Iceberg Hydrodynamics

As offshore oil and gas developments increase in northern areas such as the Grand Banks and the Arctic region, the operators face challenging conditions. Icebergs are among one of the challenges for both surface and subsea structures if they drift toward those facilities. Prediction of the iceberg drift and dynamic response to any towing process requires a good understanding of hydrodynamic effects induced by currents, waves, tow lines, etc. A reasonable estimation of added mass and RAOs are other prominent parameters required when modeling iceberg dynamics is of interest. Having access to the high resolution full 3D iceberg profiles collected in 2012 (Younan et al. 2016), it is now possible to investigate iceberg hydrodynamics using numerical and experimental methods.

This paper presents an overview of the numerical simulation results and lessons learned during various hydrodynamic simulations such as decay analysis, towing, and iceberg-structure interaction. The Diffraction Model and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) are the tools utilized in these simulations. The conclusions provide key findings and suggestions for future analysis of iceberg hydrodynamics.