Level Ice Resistance of a Wind Farm

Offshore wind farms are planned in regions with annual sea ice cover. The farms will comprise of numerous wind turbines, which serve as pinning points against the moving sea ice, thus, impacting the dynamics of the ice cover. By using discrete element method, we explore how the pinning points affect the level ice motion and develop a first-order theory to evaluate their impact on ice dynamics. Results show that maximum level ice resistance occurs at the onset of ice motion, when total resistance equals the sum of all turbines, followed by a drop as wakes from upstream turbines reach the downstream ones during linear ice motion. The degree of this reduction depends on the number of turbines, the direction of ice motion, and the ratio between turbine waterline diameter and spacing. The conclusions offer insights for developing large-scale continuum sea ice models that account for pinning points, specifically wind farms.