Increased Survivability for Safe Return to Port

This goal requires that the following functional requirements are achieved:

• If casualty threshold is not exceeded, the vessel must survive indefinitely
• If casualty threshold is exceeded, the vessel must survive for as long as necessary to allow for orderly and safely abandonment of the vessel.

SafetyatSea has developed a verification process to establish the probability of indefinite survival for all possible flooding cases. The method has been used to identify and correct ship vulnerability to flooding at concept design stages.

Although our approach goes beyond current rule compliance, it has proven useful to identify cost-effective ways of meeting current but also future requirements. It has proven useful to assess the position of new ships in relation to the IMO goals for increased survivability.

Survival time from flooding simulations

After a casualty resulting in water ingress and flooding, the survival time (before capsize takes place) can vary between a few minutes and a few hours, depending on the sea state, the damage characteristics, and loading conditions.

SafetyatSea uses advanced analytical prediction methods or unique advanced numerical simulation tools (PROTEUS) to assess the survival time of a vessel in any flooding scenario.

One of the key goals in passenger ship design should be to achieve a vessel with very high survivability in damaged conditions when flooded damaged; a vessel which is her own lifeboat. SafetyatSea can assist in achieving this goal.

Further information

Andrzej Jasionowski (a.jasionowski@safety-at-sea.co.uk) Publication (Ship Safety - the focus on survivability)