A time-dependent model of marine icing with application of computational fluid dynamics

A tool predicting the spatial distribution of ice is required to take precautions against icing in the design of offshore structures. This paper presents a 3-dimensional time-dependent model of icing caused by sea spray, called MARICE. The novelty of MARICE is that a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver is used to resolve the details of the airflow and heat transfer from the structure, to track the spray flow in the air, and to calculate the spatial distribution of the ice thickness on the structure. Two case studies illustrate the advantages of MARICE. In the first case study, the heat transfer was calculated on a structure with complex geometry, for which empirical formulas are hardly applicable. In the second, the MARICE, RIGICE04, and ICEMOD icing models predicted the time-series of ice accretion on a 90-m-diameter cylindrical structure. MARICE and RIGICE04 calculated similar total ice loads, which were higher than those calculated by ICEMOD. Both RIGICE04 and ICEMOD underestimated the heat transfer by a factor of 2–5 compared to MARICE; however, RIGICE04 applies a greater spray flux than the other two models. •Predicted heat transfer is wrong when structure is decomposed into simple geometries.•RIGICE04 and ICEMOD underpredict the heat transfer for large structures.•The wind-generated spray unlikely creates significant icing.•The water film flow modelling has low importance for icing prediction.•The heat capacity of the ice accretion is important in the case of periodic spray.