Back to search

NORRUSS-Nordområdene og Russland

Field studies and modelling of sea state, drift ice, ice actions and methods of icebergs management on the Arctic shelf

Alternative title: Feltstudier og modellering av sjøtilstand, drivis, is-påvirkning og metoder for å håndtere isfjell på den Arktiske sokkelen

Awarded: NOK 5.0 mill.

Construction of ice resistant offshore structures and transport infrastructure are planned for the development of numerous hydro-carbon deposits located in Norwegian and Russian sectors of the Barents Sea. Scientific cooperation between Norway and Russia creates necessary basement for the safety, high technological level of offshore activities and mutually beneficial cooperation. In winter time the Barents Sea is partially covered by floating ice drifting under the influence of winds and sea currents on the water surface. Drifting icebergs calved from the outflow glaciers of Svalbard, Franz-Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya are registered in different regions of the Barents Sea. Therefore design of offshore structures and planning of navigational activity should be performed with accounting of ice actions specific for the Barents Sea. The project aims to investigate characteristics of ice loads on ships and Floating Production Units designed for the Barents Sea conditions. Special attention will be focused on the regions with rare occurrence of sea ice. In such regions, e.g. near the Bear Island, the organization of field works on the drifting ice is practically not possible and the extrapolation of ice properties from more northern regions, e.g. from the regions of the Hopen Island or Spitsbergen banken, should be used. The use of data on sea currents velocities, wind velocities, wave characteristics is necessary for the calculation of ice drift and ice-structure interactions. According to the project plan these data will be generated by numerical simulations with the Russian model of ocean circulation elaborated in the Institute of Numerical Mathematics of RAS (INMOM) and realized on the supercomputer of State Oceanographic Institute (SOI, Moscow). Extreme characteristics of wind in Polar cyclones causing extreme surface sea currents and waves winds excited in polar lows will be calculated with Russian realization of ?onsortium for Small Scale Modelling (COSMO-RU).

The project will undertake field studies and modelling of sea state characteristics, drift ice, ice actions on offshore structures and methods of iceberg management in regions of offshore development on the shelf of the Barents Sea. The project aims at describing characteristics of drift ice, ice ridges and icebergs in regions with low probability of ice occurrence and high priority of offshore development (region around Bjørnøya and in the Central Barents Sea). Field activities will include deployment of ice trackers on drifting ice and icebergs, morphological studies of ice ridges, ice strength tests and standard oceanographic measurements of water characteristics, sea current velocities and waves. Modelling will include numerical simulations of sea and atmosphere state, ice and iceberg drift, thermodynamic consolidation of drifting ice ridges, and probabilistic estimates of ice and icebergs characteristics in the regions of offshore development. The influence of polar lows on surface waves and local dynamics of ice and icebergs will be investigated. Mathematical models of FPU (floating production units) manoeuvring and iceberg tow in ice conditions will be elaborated and approved for operational use.

Publications from Cristin

No publications found

Funding scheme:

NORRUSS-Nordområdene og Russland