Risk evaluation for RoPax vessels

The paper presents the results of a recent risk evalua-tion study for RoPax vessels, carried out as part of the activities of the SAFEDOR Integrated Project. The objective of the study was to investigate hazards and their causes during RoPax operation and to quantify, to the extent possible, their frequencies and conse-quences. A previous study on the safety assessment of RoPax vessels sailing in North-West European waters, covering the period until 1994, was used as the basis in putting together a high-level risk model for the current study. All scenarios are presented in the form of event trees, quantification of which is done on the basis of world-wide accident experience (from 1994 to 2004), relevant past studies and judgment. The study esti-mates the risk of loss of life among passengers and crew (by calculating for each scenario the Individual Risk, the Potential Loss of Life – PLL and plotting the corresponding F-N curves), and compares them with current risk acceptance criteria

The thematic network SAFER EURORO : an integrated approach to safe European roro ferry design

For a period of more than 10 years, a safety culture approach has been promoted through the theme'Design for Safety,' which aims at integrating safety cost effectively in the ship design process. There isa considerable wealth of information amassed over these years of research and development on safetycriticalareas. One of the main elements of the research and development (R&D) work is the assurance ofsafety within the ship design process, in the continuous search for improving the current state of affairs.Through bold steps in the direction advocated by 'Design for Safety,' it is slowly but steadily beingrecognized that this approach can greatly contribute to the overall cost-effective improvement of safety inshipping while nurturing the evolution of proper practice in the field. On this background, the paper attempts a thorough overview of related R&D developments over the lastdecade. Particular emphasis is placed on the developments that have taken place as part of the activitiesof the Thematic Network SAFER EURORO and associated research projects, which have led to thedevelopment of a recent major research initiative, the Integrated Project SAFEDOR, which is expected tolead research development in the area for the years to come

Risk analysis for RoPax vessels

The paper presents the results of a recent risk analysis study for RoPax vessels, carried out as part of the activities of the SAFEDOR Integrated Project. The objective of this study was to investigate the causes of hazards during RoPax operation and quantify, to the extent possible, their frequencies and consequences. Potential scenarios initially identified and prioritised during a Hazard Identification (HAZID) session were used in the pro cess. The work has been performed in accordance with the IMO FSA Guidelines (IMO 2002). A previous comprehensive study on the safety assessment of RoPax vessels sailing in North West European waters, covering the period until 1994, was used as the basis in putting together a high-level risk model for the current study. All scenarios are presented in the form of event trees, quantification of which is done on the basis of world-wide accident experience (from 1994 to 2004), relevant past studies and judgment. The study estimates the risk of loss of life among passengers and crew (by calculating for each scenario the In di -vidual Risk, the Potential Loss of Life – PLL and plotting the corresponding F-N curves), and compares them with current risk acceptance criteria. The resulting high-level risk model is used to provide recommendations for improvement in the form of proposed risk control options (RCOs)

Damage survivability of cruise ships - evidence and conjecture

This paper delves into damage stability legislation as it applies to passenger ships. The Concordia accident, like many others before it, has shaken the maritime profession once again with many questions being asked without being able to provide credible answers. Old ships have been designed to lower standards (it is common knowledge that new ships are safer than old ships, with the latter comprising the majority of the population), new standards are holistic and goal-based offering knowledge of the standard these ships are designed to, which is not true for old ships, emergency response is an altogether different science in modern ships and many others. Notwithstanding this state of affairs, there is another more fundamental weakness in the regulations for damage stability, perhaps at the heart of most problems with cruise ships safety, old and new. A critical review into damage stability legislation, as it applies to passenger ships, offers compelling evidence that cruise ship characteristics and behaviour have not been accounted for in the derivation of relevant damage stability rules. As a result, the regulatory instruments for damage stability currently in place do not provide the right measure of damage stability for cruise ships and, even more worryingly, the right guidance for design improvement. This leads to a precarious situation where cruise ships are underrated when it comes to assigning a damage stability standard whilst depriving designers of appropriate legislative instruments to nurture continuous improvement. Documented evidence is being presented and the ensuing results and impact discussed. Recommendations are given for a way forward

Damage stability of cruise ships - evidence and conjecture

This paper delves into damage stability legislation as it applies to passenger ships. The Concordia accident, like many others before it, has shaken the maritime profession once again with many questions being asked without being able to provide credible answers. Old ships have been designed to lower standards (it is common knowledge that new ships are safer than old ships, with the latter comprising the majority of the population), new standards are holistic and goal-based offering knowledge of the standard these ships are designed to, which is not true for old ships, emergency response is an altogether different science in modern ships and many others. Notwithstanding this state of affairs, there is another more fundamental weakness in the regulations for damage stability, perhaps at the heart of most problems with cruise ships safety, old and new. A critical review into damage stability legislation, as it applies to passenger ships, offers compelling evidence that cruise ship characteristics and behaviour have not been accounted for in the derivation of relevant damage stability rules. As a result, the regulatory instruments for damage stability currently in place do not provide the right measure of damage stability for cruise ships and, even more worryingly, the right guidance for design improvement. This leads to a precarious situation where cruise ships are underrated when it comes to assigning a damage stability standard whilst depriving designers of appropriate legislative instruments to nurture continuous improvement. Documented evidence is being presented and the ensuing results and impact discussed. Recommendations are given for a way forward

Design implications of the new harmonised probabilistic damage stability regulations

In anticipation of the forthcoming new harmonised regulations for damage stability, SOLAS Chapter II-1, proposed in IMO MSC 80 and due for enforcement in 2009, a number of ship owners and consequentially yards and classification societies are venturing to exploit the new degrees of freedom afforded by the probabilistic concept of ship subdivision. In this process, designers are finding it rather difficult to move away from the prescription mindset that has been deeply ingrained in their way of conceptualising, creating and completing a ship design. Total freedom it appears is hard to cope with and a helping hand is needed to guide them in crossing the line from prescriptive to goal-setting design. This will be facilitated considerably with improved understanding of what this concept entails and of its limitations and range of applicability. This paper represents an attempt in this direction, based on the results of a research study, financed by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in the UK, to assess the design implications of the new harmonised rules on passenger and cargo ships

An Approach to remote process monitoring and control

The purpose of this thesis is to present an approach to remote monitoring and operation of distributed real time process control systems. Conventional monitoring of process control systems currently requires a great deal of close supervision from trained personnel located on-site. In many cases, researchers, developers or maintenance personnel cannot be at every location where such a system is installed. Currently, a standardized architecture for remote access to such systems is not available. In addition, most of these systems are very expensive and under-utilized. Researchers would benefit by having access to different parts of a system concurrently The benefits of a layered architecture for remote process monitoring and control will be analyzed through the use of a demonstration system that was realized to examine the real time performance of the interconnection mechanisms between the process controller(s) and the system monitoring interfaces. Low level, real-time process control is achieved by using specialized networking schemes called fieldbusses to interconnect all control devices. In this system, fieldbus controllers will also assume the role of servers connected to the Internet, in order to make device information available to any local or remote clients. In the proposed architecture, remote clients are user interfaces, implemented as JAVA applets, which can be accessed with a web browser. The proposed system architecture allows for client interfaces to gain remote access to various types of fieldbusses transparently

Virtue integrated platform : holistic support for distributed ship hydrodynamic design

Ship hydrodynamic design today is often still done in a sequential approach. Tools used for the different aspects of CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulation (e.g. wave resistance, cavitation, seakeeping, and manoeuvring), and even for the different levels of detail within a single aspect, are often poorly integrated. VIRTUE (the VIRtual Tank Utility in Europe) project has the objective to develop a platform that will enable various distributed CFD and design applications to be integrated so that they may operate in a unified and holistic manner. This paper presents an overview of the VIRTUE Integrated Platform (VIP), e.g. research background, objectives, current work, user requirements, system architecture, its implementation, evaluation, and current development and future work