Dissertation in the field of mechanical engineering, Janne Ranta, M.Sc. (Tech.)

The public examination of the doctoral dissertation of Janne Ranta, M.Sc. (Tech.), will be held on 21 December 2018 at 12.00 at the Aalto University School of Engineering. The title of the dissertation is Discrete element modeling of ice failure against an inclined structure – Statistical analyses of peak loads and the failure process. Field of the dissertation is mechanical engineering.

The dissertation discusses an ice-structure interaction process and sea ice loads acting on an inclined structure. In the studied problem, an initially intact ice sheet moves against a rigid structure and fails into smaller ice floes forming ice rubble.

One significant outcome of the work is that the uncertainty associated with ice loads largely results from the complex ice-structure interaction process itself. In other words, the variability in ice loads cannot be explained only by natural spatial variation in ice properties as, for example, in ice thickness or in ice strength. In addition, the work presents a simple relationship between maximum peak ice loads and few important model parameters. In the future, this relationship can potentially be used in the development of probabilistic ice loads models.

The work continues the persistent research carried out by the Aalto University ice mechanics research group at the Department of Mechanical Engineering. One key area in this research is to develop and take advantage of computer models in order to gain an understanding of ice-structure interaction processes.

Opponent: Professor Andrei Metrikine, Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, the Netherlands

Supervisor: Professor Jukka Tuhkuri, Aalto University School of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Electronic dissertation: https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/49

Doctoral candidate’s contact information: Janne Ranta, [email protected]