Numerical simulation for ice breaking and water entry of sphere

A three-dimensional ice-water-structure interaction numerical model is developed to simulate the ice breaking and water entry of rigid spheres. The algorithm employs the boundary data immersion method (BDIM) to simulate the solid-fluid interactions, the volume of fluid (VOF) method to track the liquid-gas interface, and the bond-based peridynamics method to model the ice cover. For the water entry of spheres, a good agreement between numerical and experimental results has been obtained for the water-entry cavity evolution and the motion of spheres. For the interaction between a sphere and the ice cover, a good agreement between the present results and the previous numerical results has been obtained for the shape and number of cracks. The crack propagation path of the ice cover, the cavity shape, pressure and velocity field, as well as the motion of spheres during the ice breaking and water entry are analyzed. Results show that the ice load on spheres is much greater than water load during the ice breaking and water entry process. Effects of the ice thickness and elastic modulus of the ice cover, the impact velocity and the density of the spheres are also discussed.