ESTIMATING PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS FOR SHIPS NAVIGATING TO AND FROM VOISEY'S BAY

摘要

The Voisey's Bay nickel mine is located in Northern Labrador. To reach the mine site in winter requires a ship to navigate through a range of ice conditions. Close to the mine site, in the fjord, the ice is mostly uniform first year ice, up to 1.3 m thick. However, before reaching open water the ship must pass through broken ice, several layers thick, with different amounts of consolidation. The broken ice is often under severe pressure caused by wind and current. This paper describes research carried out at the Institute for Ocean Technology, in support of the environmental impact assessment, on behalf of Canadian Coast Guard, Newfoundland Region. The work fell into three distinct phases, which were full-scale trials on an icebreaker, model experiments on an icebreaker and model experiments on an ice breaking bulk carrier. The paper then identifies gaps in our knowledge of ship performance in typical Labrador ice conditions and the steps that must be taken to overcome them.