Experiments with sea spray icing: Investigation of icing rates

Sea spray icing on ships and marine structures depends on a complex correlation between metocean parameters and vessel characteristics. Sea spray icing rates have mostly been investigated and given as a function of general metocean parameters. The existing models suffer from lack of experimental data. More experimental data is required for better prediction models and understanding of the icing process. This paper presents results from a comprehensive cold laboratory study of the dependence and trends of sea spray icing rates related to 8 parameters. Experiments were performed simulating sea spray from a nozzle towards a vertical surface in freezing environment. This study presents 20 unique tests structured into 8 experiments, each of which focuses on change in icing rates due to one independent variable. Results showed that the sea spray rates dependence of the investigated parameters comply with existing knowledge, however preliminary analysis points out various unintentional covariates for most experiments which calls for further investigations. This is the greatest number of variables tested in one set of experiments to date and serve as valuable sea spray icing data experimental data – a limitation for the evaluation of previous models that pointed out to the lack of enough icing measurements in this field of research.