Safety analysis of offshore decommissioning operation through Bayesian network

Decommissioning of offshore platforms is becoming increasingly popular. The removal of these heavy steel structures is characterised by high risks that may compromise personnel safety and loss of assets. The removal operation relies on dedicated barges and heavy lift vessels that may descent or capsize because of mechanical or structural failure. The knowledge of associated hazards is driven by experience and failure data are often obtained empirically through analogous operations, which further introduces uncertainty to the risk analysis. This paper proposes an integrated safety analysis approach for conducting a decommissioning risk analysis of offshore installations. The approach incorporates hierarchical Bayesian analysis (HBA) with Bayesian network (BN) to assess the accident causations leading to futile decommissioning operation. First, the overall system failure of a lifting vessel was reviewed with an emphasis on where safety issues arise. In addition, the failure data obtained from expert judgements were aggregated through statistical distribution based on HBA. The aggregated failure data are then used to conduct dynamic safety analysis using BN, to assess and evaluate the risks of offshore jacket removal operations. The accident model is illustrated with a case study from Brent Alpha decommissioning technical document to demonstrate the capability of incorporating HBA with BN to conduct a risk analysis

Human factors in ship dismantling – a safety approach : reality vs best practice

Ship dismantling (SD) is often considered as reverse ship building. For many years, ship dismantling has been neglected by the shipping industry due to lack of rules and understanding, hence severe consequences affecting both nature and human life have occurred. There has been growing concern about the health and environmental impacts of ship dismantling [1]. Therefore the impact of ship dismantling has been severely criticized by governmental and international shipping authorities as well as non-governmental organizations (NGO). As a result the procedure of developing new rules and regulations has been triggered and the safety culture is being questioned in the ship dismantling business. Although most countries that are in the ship dismantling business have almost no regulations related to ship dismantling, the case investigated in this article is Turkey, and the situation in Turkey is very different than the other major ship dismantling countries. The main reason for this difference is of course Turkey’s governmental laws and regulations on environmental protection and safety at work, as well as Turkey’s negotiations with the EU parliament. Current rules and practice on safety in shipping have been discussed in this paper. This article is the combined work of the University of Strathclyde, the Ship Recycling Association of Turkey and Ege Celik Ship Dismantling Yard in Turkey, with the aim to compare a successful business with the available best practice in ship building in the UK

ShipDIGEST : vocational education for the ship dismantling industry

The Ship DIGEST project is funded by the European Union’s (EU), Leonardo Da Vinci Transfer of Innovation programme which funds a wide range of vocational training measures, ranging from placements abroad to cooperation projects between training organisations in different countries (EU, 2011). In the context of the Ship DIGEST project, the Transfer of Innovation funding is facilitating the transfer of existing education, tools and products from previous EU funded ship dismantling projects and related industries to vocational outputs for the Turkish ship dismantling community. This transfer is being supported by an international consortium comprising of professionals within the fields of vocational education and training; health, safety and the environment; and the ship dismantling industry

A study on evaluating the status of current occupational training in the ship recycling industry in Bangladesh

Essential to steel production in Bangladesh, the ship recycling industry has become a vital component of the country’s economy. After four decades of growth, Bangladesh continues to compete with India to lead the international ship recycling industry. In the Chittagong area, the ship recycling sector, and related downstream activities, provides employment and resources to nearby communities. Despite its profitability and income generation, poor working practices and low environmental standards tarnish the image of the sector at national and international levels. Numerous accidents and fatalities in ship recycling processes highlight the lack of adequate Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) standards. Seasonal migrant workers, many of whom unfamiliar with industrial settings, represent the majority of workers in ship recycling yards. Recruited by subcontractors, most of the workers in Bangladesh lack sufficient hazard awareness and basic safety requirements necessary to work in a ship recycling yard. For these reasons, as identified by the Bangladesh High Court and subsequent national rules, training of workers must be addressed in yards in Bangladesh. In this study, associated with the IMO-NORAD SENSREC project, existing conditions, solely about workers’ training, has been addressed, assessed, and compared in accordance with IMO’s Hong Kong Convention and ILO requirements, where detailed recommendations were provided to enhance OHS training in the yards

Designing efficient contemporary ship recycling yards through discrete event simulation

Today, the ship recycling industry is going through a transitional phase in order to comply with the new regulations which are forcing ship recycling yard owners to invest and improve yards. One way to compensate these investments is to optimise the current process and increase the efficiency; however, in the literature there is a gap on detailed approach to optimization of ship recycling processes. This paper aims to develop a framework for the ship recycling industry in order to improve and optimise the ship recycling procedures. This aim is achieved through preparation of simulation models in the ARENA software with current and alternatives practices/processes for every step of ship recycling. The simulation framework developed has been applied for a ship recycling yard in EU as a case study. Bottlenecks in the current process were identified and through simulations alternative solutions were considered to optimise the process. Potential improvements for the yard with simulation approach were summarized in this paper

Marine accident learning with fuzzy cognitive maps (MALFCMs) and Bayesian networks

Addressing safety is considered a priority starting from the design stage of any vessel until end-of-life. However, despite all safety measures developed, accidents are still occurring. This is a consequence of the complex nature of shipping accidents where too many factors are involved including human factors. Therefore, there is a need for a practical method, which can identify the importance weightings for each contributing factor involved in accidents. As a result, by identifying the importance weightings for each factor, risk assessments can be informed, and risk control options can be developed and implemented more effectively. To this end, Marine Accident Learning with Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (MALFCM) approach incorporated with Bayesian networks (BNs) is suggested and applied in this study. The MALFCM approach is based on the concept and principles of fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs) to represent the interrelations amongst accident contributor factors. Thus, MALFCM allows identifying the importance weightings for each factor involved in an accident, which can serve as prior failure probabilities within BNs. Hence, in this study, a specific accident will be investigated with the proposed MALFCM approach

An approach to advance circular practices in the maritime industry through a database as a bridging solution

The concept of maritime circularity has gained increasing attention to address challenges arising from the net-zero targets of the maritime industry. The circular economy provides potential solutions to address these challenges through reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling practices. However, the industry faces complex challenges, including inefficient reverse supply chains, a lack of awareness about circular economy principles, standardisation issues, and the need for digital infrastructure to provide vital information in the sector. These challenges prevent the implementation of circularity practices, as access to crucial data throughout the vessel’s life cycle is obstructed. This novel research aims to create a robust first-of-its-kind database solution specifically designed to support the industry’s shift towards circularity. The database will facilitate fast and transparent information flow between the stakeholders, providing foundations for asset tracking and a robust reverse supply chain. A case study was conducted to show that a database could help extract higher financial value from end-of-life ships by over 80%. The ageing fleet increases the urgency of utilising such a database, which could be a pivotal strategy for a sustainable and circular industry. This digital solution offers significant benefits to all industry stakeholders and allows holistic resource management, influencing maritime operations’ sustainability, resilience, and profitability

Dynamic Risk Assessment of Decommissioning Offshore Jacket Structures

The need to develop an integrated dynamic safety and risk analysis model for decommissioning offshore jacket structures is driven by the risky, expensive and complex nature of the operation. Many of the existing risk analysis techniques applicable to offshore assets failed to recognise and capture evolving risks during different stages of the decommissioning operation. This paper describes risk-based safety model to conduct quantitative risk analysis for offshore jacket decommissioning failure. First, a bow-tie technique is developed to model the accident cause-consequence relationship. Subsequently, a Bayesian belief network is used to update the failure probabilities of the contributing elements and thus, provides a more case-specific and realistic safety analysis when compared to the static nature of a bow-tie. This paper also presents the application of experiential learning in the dynamic safety analysis. The proposed technique is tested using a real-life case study from the Shell Brent Alpha platform. An algorithm to limit the effect of generic failure data was also developed. It is observed that the proposed technique helps to identify hazards shortly before they occur and sensitivity analysis revealed the most critical elements of the operation that must be managed to prevent catastrophe and consequently, reduce associated costs of remediation

Incorporating 'design for ship recycling' in modern marine design

One of the key areas, which potentially has one of the biggest impacts within a ships life, is currently being overlooked; the end of life and recycling phase of a vessel. Within the ship recycling industry many problems which have a detrimental impact on the environment as well as occupational health and safety have been identified as being a direct consequence of marine design decisions which range from hazardous materials utilised onboard to the manner in which the vessel has been constructed. With the demand for world shipping ever growing and ships heading to ship recycling location where health, safety and environmental standards are not always guaranteed it is vital that marine design takes responsibility for the full life cycle of a design by incorporating ‘design for ship recycling’ In this paper, through research of the ship recycling industry and referring to previous ship recycling process analysis carried out by the authors, the various hazardous materials and processes involved in ship recycling will be documented, a link established to the marine design cycle and concepts for incorporating ‘design for ship recycling’ in modern marine design introduced

The concentration of some trace elements (Al, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Ag, Cd, V, Hg and Pb) in the colorectal polyp tissues

41st FEBS Congress on Molecular and Systems Biology for a Better Life -- SEP 03-08, 2016 -- Kusadasi, TURKEY[No Abstract Available]FEB