The design, manufacture and verification of a high-capacity force and moment measurement system.

摘要

A series of tests was conducted to study the interaction of a multifaceted conical structure with multi-year ridges. The tests were conducted in three phases, one in Calgary, Alberta, one in Ottawa, Ontario, and the third at the Institute for Marine Dynamics in St. John's, Newfoundland. The St. John's phase of the program tested some of the largest ice features ever attempted at this facility, including an attempt at a one in one hundred year consolidated multi-year ridge. This thesis documents the design, manufacture and testing of the force and moment measurement system developed for use in the St. John's tests. A series of calibration tests were conducted in the Structures Laboratory of The Faculty of Engineering in which the global force measurement system was secured to the floor, and loads of known magnitude and direction were applied using a hydraulic ram with an in-line force transducer installed. Fourteen different orientations were tested and a fifteenth test was conducted in which one half of the loading system was chilled using ice to simulate the condition of having half of the force measurement system submerged in the IMD ice tank. Following this series of calibration tests, the equipment was taken to the Institute for Marine Dynamics and installed. Calibration tests were conducted there to verify the integrity of the force and moment measurement system, and a series of dynamic 'pluck' tests were carried out to determine the natural frequencies of the towing system and model. In this thesis, the results of these pluck tests are compared to the frequency of the forces observed during an ice test to ensure that resonance did not occur during testing, and that the data collected are sound.