Sea-spray icing is one of the major hazards for small- and medium-sized vessels in polar regions. Predominant anti- and deicing measures include prevention by heeding the weather forecasts and avoiding high-risk situations, protection by enclosing exposed and high-priority areas, manual ice removal by personnel, heat tracing and surplus heat. Energy is in limited supply on vessels, and alternative ways of ice protection are sought after. Seawater is readily available, and as evident from wave-washing, either naturally occurring or increased by provocative maneuvering, seawater can hold an efficient deicing capacity. This study contains knowledge gained from four separate full-scale deicing tests. Deicing is achieved during the field tests by utilizing the vessel's external fire sprinkler systems and in one case a fire hose. To the author's knowledge, no recent tests with deicing of vessels using flushing seawater have been performed, and this article is considered a first step towards evaluating the viability of the method. Targeted high-volume, low-pressure systems seem to be an effective method for deicing, particularly combined with favorable design. However, because of the risk of increased icing or freezing run-off the method is suitable for vessels and structures with sufficient run-off capabilities. Vessel safety can be improved by incorporating the proposed method.

中文翻译：

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海水除冰全面试验

海浪结冰是极地地区中小型船舶面临的主要危险之一。主要的防冰和除冰措施包括通过关注天气预报和避免高风险情况进行预防、通过封闭暴露和高优先级区域进行保护、人员手动除冰、伴热和余热。船上的能源供应有限，人们寻求替代的防冰方法。海水很容易获得，并且从波浪冲刷中可以明显看出，无论是自然发生的还是通过挑衅性操纵而增加的，海水都可以保持有效的除冰能力。这项研究包含从四次独立的全面除冰测试中获得的知识。除冰是在现场测试期间利用船舶的外部消防喷淋系统和（在一种情况下）消防水龙带实现的。据作者所知，最近没有进行过使用冲洗海水对船舶进行除冰的测试，本文被认为是评估该方法可行性的第一步。有针对性的高流量、低压系统似乎是一种有效的除冰方法，特别是与有利的设计相结合。然而，由于结冰或冻结径流增加的风险，该方法适用于具有足够径流能力的船只和结构。通过采用所提出的方法可以提高船舶安全性。