COLD REGIONS TECHNICAL DIGEST
No. 96-1, April 1996
USA Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory
Hanover, New Hampshire 03755-1290
Design of Ice Booms
Edward P. Foltyn and Andrew M. Tuthill
Introduction
This technical digest provides basic engineering design guid-
ance for floating ice retention structures or ice booms. Basic types
of booms and their ice control objectives are described briefly. The
basic theory and equations used in ice boom design are then pre-
sented and typical structural components described. The report
addresses other design considerations, such as boom layout, geom-
etry, and anchor systems, as well as the selection of wire rope and
connection systems, and concludes with an example ice boom
design at a specific site. This technical digest not only incorporates
and builds on ice boom design information found in EM 1110-2-
1612, Ice Engineering (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 1982), but
describes the actual design steps in greater detail, and elaborates
on boom geometry and the forces acting on ice boom components.
Types of ice
Booms are flexible wire rope structures designed to control
booms and
floating ice or debris. Ice booms are installed each winter by
their uses
hydroelectric and navigation interests to promote rapid ice cover
formation by retaining frazil and floating sheet ice. They are also
used to prevent brash ice and floes from interfering with hydro-
The authors are
electric intakes and navigation channels. An ice boom typically
a private consultant
consists of a series of floating structural members or boom units,
and a research
attached to a main boom cable. Figure 1 shows a typical ice boom
hydraulic engineer
arrangement. An ice boom's ability to deform and submerge will,
in CRREL's Ice
in most cases, prevent its failure under extreme loading. Ice reten-
Engineering Research
tion by conventional ice booms is limited to hydraulic conditions
Division, respectively.
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