Ice engineering

The ice control system in the Port of Oulu is based on air bubbling and utilizes thermal effluents from a nearby paper plant. Docking times are reduced by up to 4 hours.

Ice is quite often an important element in the design of hydraulic structures in Northern areas. Ice forces have occasionally caused structural failures. Ice is an operational problem for example in winter navigation. Yet ice forces have a local character and they are often overestimated. There are effective countermeasures to reduce adverse effects of ice.

Eranti Engineering Oy is proud to offer a wide range of worldclass ice engineering services that are based on decades of theoretical work, practical design and field experience. We have focused recently especially on the following important topics:

- Ice control in harbours and channels to ease winter navigation
- Dynamic ice structure interaction and control of ice induced structural   vibrations
- Ice ridge and iceberg impact forces on offshore structures.

Model test of ice ridge interaction with an offshore structure

The Grimsholmen channel marker is an example of practical
ice and vibration control. Ice forces are cut by a factor of 3,
accelerations by a factor of 6 and cost by 50 % compared
to the traditional rock mounted nearly cylindrical design