Flexural failure of sea ice - Analysis of interactions at the Confederation Bridge and assessment of selected prediction techniques

Conical shaped offshore structures in ice covered waters often cause ice sheets to fail in flexure during an interaction, commonly resulting in loads lower than other failure modes. Many models, empirical and analytical, to estimate ice loads due to the flexural failure of level sea ice have been developed. One hundred flexural failure ice events observed at the Confederation Bridge were chosen to assess four models: modified Croasdale, Ralston, Nevel and Mayne.;Characteristics of the interactions for input to the models were obtained from video observations and ice loads were derived from the pier's structural response. All models over and under estimated ice loads, however, on average, all four models over predicted ice loads. Ice thickness and the amount of ice accumulation in front of the cone affected the accuracy of the models the most.