Aker Arctic’s ARC100HD – A Powerful, and Unusual Icebreaker

BY ROB ALMEIDA ON MAY 9, 2013

Aker Arctic’s ARC100HD Icebreaker

At first glance, very little about this new icebreaker looks right.  The port side shares almost nothing in common with the starboard side and even the bridge doesn’t appear to be facing the right direction.

Image: Rob Almeida/gCaptain

This was a very deliberate design consideration by the naval architects at Aker Arctic however, one that gives the ARC100 some very unique abilities while operating in first-year arctic ice.

Every other icebreaker in the world accomplishes its job while moving forward or astern, except for the ARC100.  This new icebreaker is able to operate as an icebreaker in any direction, and as the diagram below shows, use this to its advantage by increasing its virtual beam to create channels in the ice for ships with wider beams.

The ARC100HD has also been through a plethora of model tests at Aker Arctic’s facility in Helsinki, Finland which have demonstrated the vessel’s ability to break through 1.5m thick ice when moving ahead and astern at 5 knots (2 knots through 2m thick ice). In the oblique mode, the vessel will be able to cut a 50m wide channel through 1.5m thick ice.

In addition this vessel will also be outfitted with features that provide advanced oil response capabilities in an arctic environment. As the image below shows, the vessel deploys a boom arm and uses the full length of the hull to funnel oil to the on board collector tanks for oil separation.  This system allows oil recovery in heavy seas.

Vessel Particulars:

• Length over all: 98.0 m
• Breadth over all: 26.0 m
• Draught maximum: 8.5 m
• Bollard pull: 190 tons
• Main engine power: 2 x 8000 kW
 + 2 x 4000 kW = 24000 kW
• Accommodation: 40
• Deadweight max: 3200 tons
• Fuel oil: 2500 m3
• Recovered oil: 1500 m3
• Fresh water: 250 m3
• Urea: 250 m3
• Operation range: 10000 NM

Excerpted from gCaptain. It is certainly an unusual boat. I like the way they list the fuel capacity in useful units. This boat could probably do something useful with a cubic meter of fuel oil, like travel 4 miles. A gallon probably wouldn't even get it up to operating temperature. But why do we have a tank for urea, unless this a euphemism for sewage.

Update July 2020 replaced pictures that disappeared when Blogger 'fixed' some broken html code.