Last September, PONANT’s icebreaking cruise ship,’Le Commandant Charcot’, completed a trans-Arctic voyage from Nome to Longyearbyen.
During the journey, the ship passed both the geographic and magnetic North Poles and became the first ship to reach the Pole of Inaccessibility.
During the voyage, PONANT, Aker Arctic and ABB Marine agreed to co-operate on measuring the ice loads on the vessel’s hull and propulsion system.
The intention was to support PONANT’s operations and decision making, while using the ‘Le Commandant Charcot’ as a platform for ice loads research.
Last February, Aker Arctic installed a version of its ice load monitoring system, ARC ILMS, on the cruise ship while she was in Brest, France.
ARC ILMS uses a series of strain gauges mounted to the internal hull structure to measure the structure’s response to ice loads, both when operating ahead and when operating astern in a ‘double acting’ mode.
Ice load data from the trans-Arctic voyage is now being analysed by Aker Arctic and ABB Marine, with the initial results already presented to ‘Le Commandant Charcot’s’ senior officers when the ship called at Helsinki, Finland in December.
At the same time, ABB Marine presented findings from their data on the Azipod system.
“This is the first time that ice loads on the hull and podded propulsion units have been measured simultaneously,” said Rob Hindley, Aker Arctic’s Head of Consultancy and Technology Development.
Co-operation continues, with ice load data being gathered continuously as ‘Le Commandant Charcot’ undertakes her scheduled voyages in the Polar regions. Aker Arctic and ABB Marine are working together on a combined review of the data.
“With ‘Le Commandant Charcot’s’ unique operational profile in various ice conditions, the data we continue to collect enhances our understanding of loads on ships operating stern first in ice, giving us further confidence in utilising this technology and the double acting concept,” Hindley added.
Aker Arctic Technology is an independent, private ship design and consulting company specialising in products, engineering and testing services for ice-going vessels and icebreakers.
With extensive experience in icebreaker design, Aker Arctic possesses an understanding of the solutions necessary for ice-going vessels, the company said.
