Quantitative grounding risk assessment and management

Grounding is a phenomenon in which the bottom part of a structural system, such as a ship, offshore platform, automobile, or aircraft, is accidentally damaged. Three types of grounding accidents are relevant, namely grounding, stranding, and squatting (as described in Chap. 1). As far as ship grounding is concerned, the first type usually occurs due to navigational errors associated with failures in the process of passage planning and piloting and nautical charts with out-of-date data. Stranding in the shipping industry happens when a ship is swept away by waves and tides as its engine power fails, where bottom structures are damaged on a rock near shore by vertical loading due to the difference between buoyancy and weight in ebb tide. Squatting may happen in ships operating in shallow waterways. In the aviation industry, grounding can occur upon landing when the landing gear system is malfunctional. This chapter describes the quantitative risk assessment and management of grounding accidents, with a focus on the first type of ship grounding. The methods are described in association with the shipping industry, but can be applied to other types of structural systems in grounding