Commercial ships able to route through the Northwest Passage without ice breaker assistance are a step closer to becoming a reality. Korean shipbuilders, Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), announced a few days ago that a model of their 190,000 dwt iron ore bulk carrier had finished its test program in the world’s largest – 90 meters long – ice test tank at Canada’s Institute for Ocean Technology (IOT).
With an awareness that the traditional ice-breaker bow construction (where the mass of the ship’s bow structure bears down to break up pack ice) acts as a drag on efficient progress in open waters, international collaboration between IOT and Korean researchers from Pusan National University aimed at finding the optimal bow design for a ship operating in various ice conditions. Numerical computer analysis by the team culminated in manoeuvring and resistance performance tests of the model bulk carrier in the special ice-test tank.
The Northwest Passage
There has been a progressive year-by-year decline in the thickness and extent of Arctic sea ice, a trend scientists predict likely to continue; thus the Northwest Passage (also known as the Northern Sea Route) is likely to offer a viable alternative route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in the not too distant future .
According to a tripartite six-year research program where Russia, Norway and Japan joined hands in the International Northern Sea Route Program (INSROP) the route offers a potential 40% saving in the distance (compared to southerly sea routes with Suez and Panama transits) between Northern Europe, NE Asia and the NW coast of North America. INSROP’s conclusion was that a substantial increase in shipping through the Northwest Passage is feasible, adding that they had identified a stable transit market potential, notably for dry bulk carriers.
HHI’s Design for Ice-breaking Iron Ore Bulk Carrier
HHI say that when it is built this iron ore carrier will be the world’s largest ice-breaking commercial ship with a LOA of 310 m and a breadth of 51 m. Its ice-strengthened hull is designed to give the ship the remarkable ability to navigate through 1.7 m thick ice (which is as thick as it comes in the Arctic) at a speed of 6 kts without the assistance of an icebreaker.
Exact details of the propulsion system are not available yet, but the shipbuilders say it will have a dual propulsion system (presumably ‘dual- fuel’) equipped with two ring-type propellers.
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