Numerical investigation of ice plate fractures upon rigid ball impact

The fracture process and breaking capability of ice cover impacted by high-speed projectiles before underwater explosion is an urgent subject of scientific research in ice engineering applications. This paper presents the results of numerical simulations of the dynamic fracture behaviour induced by the impact of a small spherical projectile on an ice plate. The proposed 3D rate-dependent peridynamics model is validated by the dynamic ring Brazilian disc testing of ice specimens. Good agreements between the present model and the previous experiments are obtained in ice breaking processes and damage patterns of thin, medium and thick ice plates. Several cases are analysed and discussed in terms of various impact velocities, ice thicknesses, and boundary constraint conditions. The simulations identify detailed fracturing characteristics that are not observed in experiments, including the sequence and shape of crack propagation in a short time interval, the crater formation and the damage evolution along the thickness direction. The proposed peridynamics computational model provides new understanding of the potential of using penetrator–ice block impact tests to observe the evolution of complex brittle damage and reveal the failure mechanism.