Special Issue "Damage Stability of Ships"

A special issue of Journal of Marine Science and Engineering (ISSN 2077-1312). This special issue belongs to the section "Ocean Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2023 | Viewed by 3683

Special Issue Editors

School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Athens, Greece
Interests: ship design; ship hydrodynamics; intact and damage stability; numerical and optimization methods; maritime regulations; risk assessment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
Interests: damage stability; flooding simulation; decision support; risk assessment; regulations

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Ensuring sufficient damage stability of ships and, thus, their safety in case of flooding of watertight spaces is essential for ship survivability and for the safety of life at sea. During the past century, modeling and calculation methods have been developed, as well as assessment criteria, ranging from simple floodable length analyses to extensive probabilistic damage stability assessments, such as in the frame of the current international SOLAS regulations. More recently, novel numerical simulations methods have been also developed, with focus on the modeling of the physics of the ensuing physical phenomena, namely, the flooding process of damaged ships, employing both simple hydraulic models and advanced CFD, while also considering the effects of the surrounding sea state. In addition, improvements to the damage stability assessment framework and accident statistics, as well as decision support in flooding emergency, are being developed.

The purpose of the present Special Issue is to publish innovative research in the area, to provide a professional and rigorous review process with a rapid turnaround time, and to disseminate the articles freely for research, teaching, and reference purposes. High-quality papers are encouraged for publication, directly related to various aspects of damage stability, as mentioned in the keywords below.

Prof. Dr. Apostolos Papanikolaou
Prof. Dr. Pekka Ruponen
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • damage stability
  • damaged ship motions
  • flooding simulation
  • probabilistic methods
  • decision support in emergency
  • risk assessment
  • accident statistics
  • regulatory developments

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

Article
Application of Buoyancy Support System to Secure Residual Buoyancy of Damaged Ships
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2023, 11(3), 656; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse11030656 - 20 Mar 2023
Viewed by 389
Abstract
SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea), which was first enacted in 1914 as a result of the Titanic disaster, presents mandatory requirements for ship safety, such as the adoption of watertight bulkheads. However, ship accidents continue to occur despite the development and application [...] Read more.
SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea), which was first enacted in 1914 as a result of the Titanic disaster, presents mandatory requirements for ship safety, such as the adoption of watertight bulkheads. However, ship accidents continue to occur despite the development and application of numerous safety technologies. In the case of a marine accident, the risk of sinking or capsizing due to flooding can be reduced by subdividing the watertight area, but shipbuilding costs, the weight increase for light ships, and the intact stability of the vessel must be considered together. For this reason, in this study, a BSS (buoyancy support system) was designed in accordance with ISO 23121-1 and ISO 23121-2. The characteristics of watertight and non-watertight spaces were reviewed and the BSS was implemented for a small car ferry. By applying additional safety technologies while securing economic feasibility in terms of ship construction and operation, an alternative to reduce the loss of human lives, environmental damage, and property losses in the case of a ship accident was proposed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Damage Stability of Ships)
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Article
On Boundary Conditions for Damage Openings in RoPax-Ship Survivability Computations
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2023, 11(3), 643; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse11030643 - 18 Mar 2023
Viewed by 426
Abstract
The survivability of a damaged RoPax ship in the case of a flooding accident can be critical, as these ships have a tendency for a rapid capsize. Various simulation tools are presently in use to study the behavior of damaged RoPax and cruise [...] Read more.
The survivability of a damaged RoPax ship in the case of a flooding accident can be critical, as these ships have a tendency for a rapid capsize. Various simulation tools are presently in use to study the behavior of damaged RoPax and cruise ships. Recent benchmark tests show that the numerical tools for this purpose are very useful, but their accuracy and reliability still leave something to be desired. In many numerical simulation codes for ship survivability, the water inflow and outflow through a damage opening are modeled with Bernoulli equation, which describes steady flow in an inertial frame of reference. This equation takes neither the floodwater inertia in the opening into account nor does it regard the effect of ship motions on the flow in the opening. Thus, there are some approximations involved in the use of the Bernoulli equation for this purpose. Some alternative formulations are possible. This study sheds light on the question of how relevant is it to use the more complicated formulations instead of the very simple and robust Bernoulli model in the numerical simulation of damaged ships in the sea. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Damage Stability of Ships)
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Article
Statistical Analysis of Accidents and Review of Safety Level of Passenger Ships
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2023, 11(2), 410; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse11020410 - 13 Feb 2023
Viewed by 614
Abstract
This paper deals with a statistical analysis of maritime accidents pertaining to passenger ships in worldwide operation and, ultimately, with the assessment of the current safety level of the particular ship type, assuming that the safety level may be defined as a societally [...] Read more.
This paper deals with a statistical analysis of maritime accidents pertaining to passenger ships in worldwide operation and, ultimately, with the assessment of the current safety level of the particular ship type, assuming that the safety level may be defined as a societally acceptable level of risk. The basic risk contributors, namely the frequency of main accidents’ occurrence and related consequences, are herein quantified and assessed. The presented analysis, covering the last two decades (2000–2021), shows that there has been a considerable reduction in the frequency of serious accidents’ occurrence in the last decade, whereas associated consequences do not exhibit the same trend since the frequency of ship total losses and of fatalities has increased. However, fatality rates are, to a great extent, affected by accidents of ships not compliant with safety regulations. This study also confirmed that grounding and contact accidents dominate the statistics of passenger ships of all subtypes, whereas collision accidents only account for about 30% of the events potentially leading to flooding. This calls for an urgent reconsideration of present SOLAS damage stability regulations, in which the bottom and side collision events need to be reconsidered with priority as the prime contributors to the flooding risk of passenger ships. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Damage Stability of Ships)
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Article
Statutory and Operational Damage Stability by a Monte Carlo Based Approach
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2023, 11(1), 16; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse11010016 - 22 Dec 2022
Viewed by 465
Abstract
The paper describes the extension of a Monte Carlo based damage stability simulation method for the generation of approval documents for both statutory and operational damage stability. The intention of this development is that the advantages of the Monte Carlo damage stability simulation [...] Read more.
The paper describes the extension of a Monte Carlo based damage stability simulation method for the generation of approval documents for both statutory and operational damage stability. The intention of this development is that the advantages of the Monte Carlo damage stability simulation concept can be used without the necessity to ask for alternative design approval procedures during the statutory approval by the classification society. This means that the same damage stability documentation must be generated as by the conventional damage stability calculation. To generate the required approval documentation, the individual probabilities for each damage case have to be determined and the different damage cases have to be sorted into so called damage zones, which is required by the classification societies. Within one damage zone, the splitting of damage cases was found to be necessary to avoid the computation of probabilities greater than 1. This extended method is then applied to the computation of damage stability during the operation of ships, which means that the method can now be applied in situ to real loading conditions, which makes the ship operation more flexible. This new capability is also interesting for those ships which carry a substantial amount of project deck cargo. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Damage Stability of Ships)
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Article
Active Flooding Mitigation for Stability Enhancement in a Damaged RoPax Ship
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2022, 10(6), 797; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse10060797 - 09 Jun 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1081
Abstract
In the framework of the EU project Flooding Accident Response (FLARE), flooding mitigation on a RoPax ship was studied using different active methods to improve ship safety in damage cases leading to a hull breach and flooding. Adding active flooding control systems to [...] Read more.
In the framework of the EU project Flooding Accident Response (FLARE), flooding mitigation on a RoPax ship was studied using different active methods to improve ship safety in damage cases leading to a hull breach and flooding. Adding active flooding control systems to ship designs and ships in service, which would mitigate the effects of flooding in a damage case, could be an attractive way to improve ship safety. In order to promote this idea, the effects of such active measures on the ship safety were studied: the choice of them, the required application speed of them, their functionality in waves, the numerical modeling of them, and finally testing them with model scale tests. The following flooding mitigation methods were studied: (1) counter flooding, (2) the recovery of lost buoyancy in a damaged compartment, and (3) deploying a watertight barrier on the trailer deck. This study consists of the numerical simulations carried out with the program HSVA Rolls in chosen damage cases on a current RoPax design, with and without active flooding mitigation measures, and of the following ship model tests based on the a priori computations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Damage Stability of Ships)
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