Abstract
This paper reports on the results of a medium-scale experiment regarding the impact applied by ice floes with a length of 0.15 to 1.2m and with an impact velocity of 0.14 to 5.4m/s against a pile structure and numerical simulation using the 3-D discrete element method (DEM). Ice caused brittle failure/splitting in most cases. In those cases, we found that the increase rate of maximum impact load due to impact velocity decreased in comparison with that in non-fracture cases, and that the length of ice floe in the impact direction did not affect the impact load. We also developed a fundamental numerical method to simulate the impact of ice. The simulation results showed a close correlation with the experimental outcome in terms of the time-series change of impact loads, the dynamic failure processes of the ice floe.
