How Icebreaker Ships Break Ice — It’s a Little Smarter Than You Think
Fun Fact Friday
Happy Friday Everyone!
This week’s topic: Icebreaker Ships
Icebreaker ships have been monumental in expanding northern shipping routes and aiding polar research missions. No doubt they’re built differently, and one obvious change is a reinforced the hull. These ships have a double hull reinforced with steel. This design keeps it watertight and resistant to cold weather.
Consider boats designed to travel in the ocean (like a motorboat), they have a pointed bow allowing it to cut through the water. Icebreakers have a more rounded bow and it does two things:
- Allows the broken ice to travel sideways and not upwards against the hull of the boat
- Allows the boat to slide on top of the ice to break it
I always thought icebreakers just went at the ice but it turns out to be significantly easier to break when putting downwards force as opposed to sideways force. If you think about it, icefields are vast sheets of ice. Applying force sideways means you’re applying force to an indefinite amount of ice. Applying force from above means there’s only 3 feet of ice (ish) to break through. Clearly one is easier to crack. If you watch this video (start @ 1.06) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6vTniRXEk0&ab_channel=ScienceChannel you’ll see a clip of a test run for a model icebreaker and if you look closely you’ll actually see the bow bob up and down.
Last but not least, these boats need a lot of power! There are icebreakers that utilize nuclear energy to power their ships 😲
Hope you learned something new!
Have a good weekend!
Sources:
https://www.marineinsight.com/types-of-ships/how-does-an-ice-breaker-ship-works/
https://interestingengineering.com/7-of-the-most-impressive-icebreaker-ships-and-how-they-work
