seatec - Finnish marine technology review 1/2005 | Page 51

nia in 1999-2000. Ice forces were measured at the Norstˆmsgrund lighthouse offshore Luleå in Sweden. In addition, ice strength characteristics of first-year ice ridges were measured close to Oulu in Finland. Publicdomain information is available in LOLEIF web-pages and in the Publications-page. STRICE (Measurements on Structures in Ice) is a follow-up study for the LOLEIF project. Pre-normative research was carried out by continuing full-scale measurements in the Gulf of Bothnia in 2001-2003. The full-scale data will be released for publicity in 2009. Public-domain information is available in STRICE web-pages and in the Publications-page. COSAR (Choise of Arctic Offshore Structures) and INTAS 97-1665 (Reliability of Engineering Facilities in the Arctic Seas) were two subsequent research projects funded by INTAS. VTT co-ordinated the work of five institutes from Norway, Russia and Ukraine to improve models that are used to determine ice loads on Arctic Offshore structures. Basic information on these projects as well as selected papers are available in the INTAS Publications-page. NEST (Networking Studies on Ice and Compliant Structures) is an EU funded network project to stimulate co-operation and to change information between European and Chinese researchers.The project concentrates in studies of ice-induced vibrations of offshore structures. New fullscale data on vibrations of vertical as well as conical structures is availalable in the Publications-page. VIBRA (Ice Induced Vibrations of Marine Structures) is an experimenal study supporting the projects ARKI and NEST. Tests were made in the ARCTECHLAB at the Hamburg Ship Model Basin in 2002 using a test structure that was sensitive to ice-induced vibrations.The work was financially supported by the Human Potential and Mobility Programme from the European Union through contract HPRI-CT1999-00035. The test report and conference papers describing the tests are available in the Publications-page. ISO/TC67/SC7/WG8 (Arctic Offshore Structures) is an international project, which aims at developing a new design code for structures in ice-bound waters. VTT participates in this work with a responsibility to lead a sub-group that will define the recommended methods for ice load determination. VTT’S MARITIME TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT VTT (Technical Research Centre of Finland) is an impartial expert organization that carries out technical and technoeconomic research. The turnover is 210 M˛ and personnel 2800. Our activities in the maritime sector cover: - structural integrity structural monitoring reliability of systems passenger comfort marine traffic safety risk analyses wind limit definitions human technology interface environmental engineering manoeuvring characteristics model and full scale tests small craft design analysis computational fluid dynamics simulations and virtual prototyping VTT P.O.Box 1705 FI-02044 VTT Finland Phone +358 20 722 111 Fax +358 9 455 0619 E-mail: [email protected] www.vtt.fi/ SEATEC 2005 49