Finnish ice and snow expertise was born out of necessity and transformed into cutting-edge innovations with global appeal. As winters get warmer with climate change, this snow-how is in more demand than ever.
The heavy door opens, and a rush of cool air greets us.
“This is my favourite place in our offices during summer,” says Mika Hovilainen with a grin. He is CEO of Aker Arctic, an icebreaker design company.
Small red boats are neatly arranged across the large space, their hulls curving elegantly in and out. These are few-meters-long miniatures of existing and upcoming icebreakers and icegoing vessels that Aker Arctic designs.
Finland is world-famous for its icebreaking expertise. The know-how was born out of necessity; all Finnish ports freeze during winter. (Estonia is the only other country that can make the same claim.) Shipping lanes need to be kept open. The challenge has driven technological innovation and fostered a deep understanding of how ice behaves.
Hovilainen opens another door, and the air becomes even colder. This is Aker Arctic’s pride and joy: a 75-metre-long ice tank where employees and visiting researchers can observe how miniature vessels manoeuvre in ice-covered waters.
Mika Hovilainen is the chief executive of Aker Arctic.
Real-life testing – albeit at 1:40 scale for the largest vessels – is crucial to understanding how ice and vessels interact.
“People often think that an icebreaker simply rams through the ice, forcing the mass out of its way,” Hovilainen says. “In fact, the shape of the hull turns a forward force into a downward force that breaks the ice. The ice slides beneath the hull, breaks into smaller pieces, and is pushed to the back and to the side.”
There’s more to ice than meets the eye
Jukka Tuhkuri studies ice mechanics and arctic marine technology.
“Ice is a difficult material,” muses Jukka Tuhkuri, professor at Aalto University. His area of expertise is ice mechanics, a discipline studying how ice deforms and breaks.
Tuhkuri says there are a few common misconceptions about ice. The first and most persistent is that ice is cold.
“As a material, ice is not cold, because it’s so close to its melting point.”
To illustrate, he compares ice to steel, which melts at around 1,500 degrees Celsius. At room temperature, a steel beam is still far from its melting point. However, even at minus 10 degrees — a common winter temperature — ice is already very close to melting.
Another misconception is that ice is fragile.
“Yes, ice can be fragile when cold or under rapid loading, but if ice is under slow, steady stress, for example when it is pushed against something, it flows like liquid.”
Source: finland.fi
