Estimation of the Ice-Induced Fatigue Damage to a Semi-Submersible Platform under Level Ice Conditions

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This paper explains and compares the fatigue damage estimation obtained from three different methods. The results of this study provide the valuable information regarding the prediction of fatigue damage of ship structure due to long-term ice impact. The reviewer has comments that can be responded by the author. The comments are as follows:

1. The paper does not explain clearly what is the novelty. It should be explained in the Introduction. Some paragraph should be added to strength the work of this paper aiming to fill the gaps from the referenced papers. 

2. During interaction of ship structure and ice impact, the information of the fracture mechanics should be added in the Introduction. Some papers related to fracture and damage structure can be referred, for example: Fracture and damage to the material accounting for transportation crash and accident (Ridwan, et. al. 2020). 

3. In Section 3.1, the material properties of ice and ship as well as the environmental condition should be written in the paper. 

4. In Fig. 2, It should be explained further the different of radial and circumferential cracks. The effect of these cracks to the fatigue damage prediction can be explained. 

5. Please explain why is the effect of the rubble accumulation ignored during simulation presented in Fig. 3. 

6. It will be interesting if the author can present the results of FEM for semi submergible drilling rig during ice impact. The stress distribution can be shown for the most specific or worst cases. 

7. The conclusions can be improved.

no comment

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper is well written and presents an interesting topic. The methods described by the authors are well applied and can be useful to reproduce the analysis on other structures and vessels.

I only have a remark on the literature analysis, that may be improved in my opinion. I suggest the authors to search for additional references to better characterise the context of the paper. 

More details 5.18

in my opinion the paper is well written and easy to read. The contents are well structured in the various sections and properly organized. The topic is interesting and the methods described by the authors may find potential applications to investigate different structures. The major comment I have regards the literature review and, subsequently, the introduction. This part is poor and may be extended and better characterized by the authors by adding references to other studies. In such ways, a more complete definition of similar studies may be given to readers and the authors can better define the aim of the paper and its novelty features. As for the methodological part, in my opinion the procedure is well described and detailed and the information necessary to reproduce the study are provided in the paper. In accordance with Reviewer 1, I can suggest to add the material properties of the semi-submergible drilling rig.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx