Given that icebreakers clear a path for other ships by traveling through the ice head-on (or sometimes butt-on), then in order for one of them to clear a wider path, it would have to be wider and thus larger overall ... right? Well, Finland’s Arctech Helsinki Shipyard is taking a different, more efficient approach. It’s in the process of building an asymmetric-hulled icebreaker that can increase its frontal area, by making its way through the ice at an angle of up to 30 degrees.
Arctech refers to the ship as “Icebreaking rescue vessel NB 508,” although according to a report in New Scientist, it’s also known as the Baltika. It’s being built for the Russian Ministry of Transport, and will be used not only for icebreaking, but also for rescue and oil spill cleanup duties in the Gulf of Finland.
The ship will be moved along by three propulsors on its underside, each one of which can rotate 360 degrees. This means that it will have no problem moving forwards, backwards, or sideways. By hitting the ice at an oblique angle, it will be able to clear a 50-meter (164-foot)-wide path – not too shabby, considering the NB 508 itself will have a breadth of only 20.5 m (67 ft), and a length of 76 m (249 ft).
Three diesel generators will provide a total power of 9 MW and a total propulsion power of 7.5 MW. That should be enough to send it through ice up to 0.6 meter (2 ft) thick when moving sideways, or 1 meter (3.3 ft) when going bow- or stern-first.
The NB 508 was designed by Aker Arctic Technology, and has been under construction at Arctech since June 28. It’s scheduled for delivery to the client by next spring (Northern Hemisphere).
Source: Arctech Helsinki Shipyard via New Scientist
Instead, they slide up onto the ice using a very different hull shape to the normal deep water cargo ship, and quite inefficient and uneconomic for normal sailing. Their power is used to slide up as far a possible, and their *weight is what breaks up the ice, allowing it to be pushed aside.
This is a small and therefore relatively light vessel, cleverly designed to be able to break open a path for wider vessels, but is only able to deal with 'thin' ice. ‘Thanks’ to our influence in increasing temperature of the planet, and the clearly observed reductions in Arctic ice, 0.6m is presumable as thick as it gets now, in the Gulf of Finland. Anyone have data on ice thicknesses there?
Still, a very cost effective solution I should think, and helpful for the usually very tight Russian budgets.
Furthermore, the record of the last 650,000 years shows no correlation between warming and carbon dioxide.
Get back to me with your predictions of global warming when your scientists have models that match historical and current conditions.
I have thought that a vessel slips under the ice and then breaks the ice upwards and then pushes the broken ice off to the sides like a snowplow would leave the lane open longer.