Hydrodynamic characteristics of a body exiting water through an ice opening considering hydroelastic effects

A coupled weakly compressible smoothed particle hydrodynamics–Simbody framework is employed to investigate the water exit of a cylindrical body through an ice opening. The numerical model is validated against benchmark problems involving free-surface flow, fluid–structure interaction, and buoyancy-driven water exit. Three boundary conditions are considered: an open free surface, a rigid-ice opening, and an elastic-ice opening, followed by analyses of the opening-to-cylinder diameter ratio and ice-sheet Young's modulus under a fixed applied thrust and common initial conditions. Under the operating conditions considered, the results show that geometric confinement imposed by the ice opening primarily governs the vertical water-exit response, reducing the cylinder displacement and velocity relative to the open-water case. In contrast, the lateral motion is more sensitive to the local flow asymmetry and hydroelastic interaction around the opening. A smaller opening strengthens the confined flow and the overall local pressure response near the opening edge, resulting in a slight suppression of the upward motion. Variations in ice-sheet stiffness have little influence on the principal vertical motion but modify the lateral response and opening-edge deformation. The latter does not exhibit a simple monotonic dependence on Young's modulus, owing to the evolving redistribution of hydrodynamic loading associated with the displacement flow, annular-gap flow, and cylinder wake. Ice deformation and von Mises stress remain concentrated around the opening edge during the main interaction stage.