Study on the structural response and load characteristics of a large-scale vehicle with floating ice during entering water

The extensive coverage of ice floes in the polar regions can lead to high-impact loads on large-scale vehicles, thereby significantly affecting the safety of their deployment. To investigate the impact of ice floes on the characteristics of the water entry process, this paper constructs a numerical calculation method for the water entry of large-scale vehicles under the influence of ice floes based on the Arbitrary Lagrange–Euler algorithm. The effectiveness of the numerical model is verified through experiments, and the influence of ice floe morphology on the impact load characteristics and structural response characteristics is studied. The results indicate that, compared to a non-icy environment, the presence of ice floes inhibits the expansion trend of cavitation bubbles. Under ice floe conditions, the peak value of the fluid load exhibits an amplification effect, with an amplification factor of 1.3, and the peak value of the collision load is 4.5 times that of the fluid load peak. When the thickness of the ice floe is too large, the huge load will pose a significant threat to the structural safety of the vehicle. The research findings provide theoretical support for predicting the water entry loads of cross-medium vehicles in polar regions and designing their structural strength.