The bending strength of sea ice is crucial for ships navigating on ice and therefore knowledge of the mechanical properties of ice is very important for the design of such ships. The main objective of this study is the numerical simulation of four-point bending sea ice using smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH), which being a mesh-free method, offers many advantages over traditional grid-based approaches. The numerical results will be compared to previous simulations of in situ four-point bending test results in terms of force, displacement and failure time. Furthermore, comparison of the SPH-based numerical simulations with the results will serve as a basis for discussing the potential advantages and disadvantages of the meshless particle method used to model flexural failure of sea ice. INTRODUCTION Vessels operating in Arctic regions are required to advance through flat ice initiating downward bending failure of the ice sheet and, therefore, knowledge of the mechanical properties of ice is very important for the design of such vessels. Therefore, a deeper understanding of the mechanical properties of sea ice can contribute to reliable simulations of ice strength and thus to better design of ice-navigating ships and offshore structures. One of the key mechanical properties in this regard is the flexural strength of the ice, because the flexural failure mode determines the load experienced by the ship in relatively thin ice, such as that of the Baltic Sea. The mechanical properties of sea ice depend on the ice. crystal structure, elastic modulus, particle size, tensile and compressive strength, etc. All of these factors must be taken into account to model the ice accurately. To have a good understanding of the fracture behavior of ice...... middle of article...... dictating the initiation of impact damage in composite structures » AIAA Journal, 38, 2000.13. Enkvist, E. “On the ice resistance encountered by ships operating in continuous icebreaking mode” Swedish Academy of Technical Sciences in Finland, Report No. 24, 1972.14. Määttänen, M. “On the flexural strength of brackish water ice by in situ tests” Marine Science Communications, 2(2), 125-138, 1976.15. Soa T. “Numerical simulations of a four-point bending sea ice beam”, Master's thesis, Aalto University, Finland, 2011.16. Anghileri, M., Castelletti, LM. L, Invernizzi, F., Mascheroni, M. “A study of numerical models for hail impact analysis using explicit finite element codes” International Journal of Impact Engineering 31, 929-994 , 2005.17. Hallquist JO. LS-DYNA: “Keywords User’s Manual”. Livemore, CA: Livemore Software Technology Corporation, August 2012.