Sea Technology

NOV 2016

The industry's recognized authority for design, engineering and application of equipment and services in the global ocean community

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38 st / November 2016 www.sea-technology.com Costa Concordia Brookes Bell Safety at Sea's flooding simulations are based on a physical model of the flooding process, which is developed using data available about the selected incident. While this means that simulations do not perfectly adhere to the dynamics of the impact and the ship's subsequent re- sponse, the results of flooding simulations are nevertheless accurate in most instances. In a recent example, results of flooding simulations from the first impact to the final grounding of the Costa Concor- dia, a cruise ship that sank off the coast of Italy in 2012, accurately showed the ship's heeling from port to starboard sides. The results of the simulation fitted the incident reports of the crew well and were achieved despite the complexity of the ship and the situation on board. Fusion of Expertise By combining flooding simulation with the skills of a range of experts, including naval architects, engineers and master mariners, it is possible to foster "biggest picture thinking" about the potential cause of stability failure, and in doing so provide a better overall investigation than would have been possible using experts of one discipline in isolation. area of operation) with damage of a prescribed size to assess stability in a serious flooding incident. Those ships passing the test were deemed to be compliant with the Stockholm Agreement. While this sounds simple in essence, model testing is very time consuming and expensive, meaning that a trial- and-error approach to Stockholm Agreement compliance was not viable. Therefore, before vessels reached the model testing phase, flooding simulations were used to test whether modifications to the vessels' design would be likely to survive the model test. In this way, Brookes Bell Safety at Sea was able to de- velop a simple, unique and cost-effective solution to com- pliance. The team supported upgrades on the majority of vessels impacted by the Stockholm Agreement and deliv- ered 150 projects related to the requirements. While the Stockholm Agreement only affected the Ro- Ro fleet in Europe, flooding simulations can deliver con- siderable cost and safety benefits across the shipping in- dustry. Indeed, Brookes Bell Safety at Sea believes design modifications implemented to support Stockholm Agree- ment compliance barely scratch the surface of improve- ments possible through flooding simulations. (Top) The most effective way to achieve Stockholm Agreement compliance is via model testing, which involves building a model of a vessel with design modifica- tions aimed at protecting the ship in the event that it takes on water on deck. Be- fore vessels reach the model testing phase, flooding simulation software tests whether modifications to vessel design would be likely to survive model testing. (Bottom) A Brookes Bell flooding simulation to corre- late with witness statement for Costa Con- cordia investigation.

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