Ice is the dominant feature in artic waters for most or all of the year. In sub-artic regions, ice can be present in many forms for part of the year. The eastern coastal waters in Canada are prone to extensive ice coverage. Ice will often be the dominant load when considering the design of ships and offshore structures for many regions, including in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Newfoundland waters and along the Labrador coast. Many see ice as the dominant design challenge, and in other cases, the primary impediment preventing the economic development of resources. Consequently, improving our understanding of ice loads is a topic of large practical significance.

Ice loads on structures occur over a specific, often quite small area. The area of contact is, more or less, the area of overlap of the ice edge and the structure. The earliest measurements and models were primarily concerned with the total ice contact force. Early ice load models [6] did include terms to show that the average ice pressure varied, but there was no representation of pressure variation within the contact. As an approximation, the pressure within the contact was assumed uniform.