A Review of Research on Ice Accumulation on Polar Ships

The abundant natural resources in the polar regions have been discovered one after another, which highlights the economic value of the polar regions. With the global warming, the polar sea ice has melted a lot, making it possible to open up polar routes, and there will be a large number of ships sailing in the polar regions in the near future. However, the polar environment is harsh, the temperature is below freezing most of the time, the air-sea exchange is strong, and the humidity is high. Under such conditions, a large amount of ice accretion will form on the ship’s surface and superstructure, which will seriously endanger the stability of the ship and the safety of the people on board. This article reviews the research and development of ship ice accumulation. First, the general situation of ship ice accretion research is described, then several typical ship ice accretion models are introduced. Finally, the future development direction and challenges of ship ice accretion numerical modeling are prospected.