The bending strength of sea ice is critical for ships sailing 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 investigation 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 with previous simulations of in situ four-point bending test results in terms of force, displacement and failure time. Furthermore, the comparison of SPH-based numerical simulations with the results will serve as a basis for discussing the potential advantages and disadvantages of the mesh-free particle method used to model flexural failure of sea ice. INTRODUCTION Ships operating in the Arctic regions are required to progress through level ice by initiating downward bending failure of the ice sheet and therefore knowledge of the mechanical properties of the ice is quite important for the design of such ships. 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 ships and offshore structures. One of the key mechanical properties in this regard is the flexural strength of the ice because the mode of flexural failure determines the load experienced by the ship in relatively thin ice, such as in the Baltic Sea. The mechanical properties of sea ice depend on the ice. crystalline structure, elastic modulus, grain size, tensile and compressive strength, etc. All these factors should be taken into account to accurately model ice. To have a correct understanding of the behavior of ice failure... half of the article ......which causes 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” The Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences in Finland, Report No. 24, 1972.14. Määttänen, M. "On the bending strength of brackish water ice by in situ tests" Marine Science Communications, 2(2), 125-138, 1976.15. Soa T. “Numerical simulations of a sea ice beam in four-point bending” Master's thesis, Aalto University, Finland, 16.2011. Anghileri, M., Castelletti, LM. L, Invernizzi, F., Mascheroni, M. “A Survey 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 Manual”. Livemore, CA: Livemore Software Technology Corporation, August 2012.