Keynote. The evolution of ship design from a manual toward a computer-aided, digital approach has been drastic after the 1970s, with the explosive development of computer hardware and software systems. In today’s era of smart digitalization in the frame of Industry 4.0, recently introduced digital/software tools and systems increase the efficiency and quality of the life-cycle ship design process, but also the operational complexity and the demand for proper training of users of software platforms. Parametric optimisation and simulation-driven design, product lifecycle management, digital twins and artificial intelligence are nowadays frequently used by the maritime industry during the commissioning/quality control activities and in the various phases of ship design, ship operation and ship production. This paper presents an overview of notable developments in the above areas and the way ahead to respond to present and future challenges of the maritime industry.@en

Theory and application of damage stability followed over the years two dissociated paths: static assessments and dynamic simulations. The first approach, being easy to apply and understand, has been preferred by ship designers and regulators; the second, more advanced and first-principle oriented, has been mainly reserved for research or high-level consultancy, especially for passenger ships. Nowadays, the availability of numerical flooding simulation tools across the scientific community and calculation power in the industry allows for a possible definitive transition of damage stability assessment towards direct numerical analyses. However, research should softly drive designers towards more advanced processes via a suitable didascalic calculation framework. The multi-level approach pursued in project FLARE is an example of such a transition from static to dynamic damage stability assessment. The present work initially carefully reviews the probabilistic concept of damage stability, critically comparing the prescriptive statistical methods with direct ones and providing insights and guidance on how researchers and designers can reconcile with the original implicit assumption of the probabilistic approach. Secondly, the development of the multi-level framework highlights incongruences concerning modelling of damages between static and dynamic assessments, disfavouring the comprehension of dynamic results to designers. Two detailed examples highlight the differences in dynamic simulation results between different damage breach modelling, leading to completely different flooding paths for the same damage case. Finally, the paper indicates how a compromise between academic approach and application could help designers to start their transition towards direct numerical damage stability analyses.

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A more contemporary damaged stability assessment of a passenger ship can be addressed with a non-zonal approach, assessing multiple damage types and environmental conditions and employing dynamic analysis for ship survivability. This direct method necessitates the generation and simulation of many damage scenarios. However, the probabilistic models for damage characteristics describe many damages that are not critical for ship survivability. To restrict the number of damage scenarios, hence calculation time, designers currently apply empirical rules, such as critical damages are only above two compartments, considering that damage stability regulations currently in force to ensure survivability levels beyond this damage extent. However, a rigorous approach is lacking. The present work explores the use of more scientific methods as damage filters. The first method uses preliminary static calculations. The second uses the energy absorbed by the ship during an impact, and the third is suitable for a purely dynamic approach. The paper critically compares the three methodologies on two sample passenger ships for collision damages, showing their respective advantages and disadvantages.@en

Against the background of using the Index of Subdivision as a reference to address the safety level of ships when damaged, following primarily collision incidents, the EC-funded FLARE project is making inroads towards a direct assessment of flooding risk, which is ship, operating environment, and accident-type specific by addressing all the underlying elements, using a two-level approach; level 1 being semi-empirical with risk models informed through a newly composed accident database and level 2 with flooding risk, in the form of Potential Loss of Life, calculated from first principles, using time-domain flooding simulation tools and evacuation analyses in pertinent emergencies. In addition to addressing all accident types and modes of loss, the FLARE framework and methodology target active and passive measures of risk prevention and control, hence with application potential to both newbuildings and existing ships as well as facilitate real-time flooding risk evaluation for risk monitoring and effective control in emergencies. A key objective of the FLARE project is to provide the technical basis and a proposal for the revision of relevant IMO regulations towards a risk-based approach to contain and control flooding emergencies. The paper provides a complete example of one cruise ship and one RoPax where levels 1 and 2 of flooding risk evaluation are presented and discussed, and a summary of results for a further 8 sample ships from Project FLARE, leading to conclusions on the progress made and recommendations for the way forward.

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Development of damage stability as a scientific subject, specifically in damage ship hydrodynamics and, generally, flooding risk assessment, has evolved primarily by inquisitive academics with support by people with vision and passion towards maritime safety enhancement from industry and Government, the latter in the wake of serious accidents. Notwithstanding this, the subject has seen remarkable development in a short period of time in terms of understanding process, and developing methods and tools for practical implementation of such developments. The stage has now been reached where large-scale EC and industry-funded projects are bringing all requisite knowledge and experience together towards implementation by end users with the view to institutionalizing such developments. The paper critically traces and presents key developments starting from basic concepts to a complete framework for performing numerical simulations of ship survivability in operational conditions in the seaway, leading to flooding risk assessment with application potential for new and existing ships with focus on the design phase but with operation potential in ship operation, the latter involving emergencies.

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Stability has been a primary focus of the maritime industry and of immense interest to the IMO from the outset. Despite several attempts to resolve stability-related issues, the problem of stability remains one that has yet to be resolved. Reasons for this, range from the complexity of the problem itself to misconceptions in its very nature, particularly concerning compromised conditions of the ship in question. More specifically, whilst stability of ships is an extremely interesting scientific problem and a determining factor in ship design, the impact on the operation of passenger ships, a matter of crucial importance from the dual point of view of safety and economics, has hardly ever received the attention it deserves. Currently, intact stability and damage stability share the same stage from a regulatory perspective and, consequently, they have equal impact on design and operation-related decisions, an example of which is the use of combined intact and damage stability GM limit curves (e.g. IACS Rec 110 Rev1). However, in line with goal-based regulations and standards, design and operational decisions should be risk-informed in which case, matters relating to damage stability are of higher concern, simply by virtue of the fact that damage stability is by far the greater risk contributor. In fact, for passenger ships (>500GT), the level of risk associated with intact stability is indiscernible in contrast to that of damage stability. More importantly, in the operational loading conditions of such vessels, damage stability is a more dominant constraint. Hence, such ships are designed based on damage stability considerations alone. However, since life-cycle risk management is still an active research subject, stability management is being addressed somewhat haphazardly by allowing for design GM margins, drawing from experience on the average deterioration of GM over the life-cycle of passenger ships. This is typically 1% to 2% per year on average, which leaves roughly 50% of ships on the wrong side of this averaging process and this, in turn, limits operation substantially with severe economic impact. This paper delves in this direction by drawing on current ship design and operational practice and presents an innovation with application to a large cruise ship to demonstrate how life-cycle damage stability management could be tackled in a structured and cost-effective manner.

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Modern optimisation methodologies have revolutionised the engineering sector and pave the way for innovation. In ship design, this has been spearheaded by the introduction of the Holistic Design approach that allows more attributes and performances of the end product to be assessed accurately and concurrently even at the early design phase. In this respect, the authors present herein a methodology based on the optimisation of the functionalities that the general arrangement needs to provide (in this case; adjacency, noise and evacuation flow). The methodology allows for a large optimisation space, several objectives and intrinsic control by the user at all the stages. By re-arranging the location of the spaces onboard, in relation to their position on the hull as well as between themselves, significant improvements can be achieved. More functional objectives can be incorporated through modularity and penalty functions, keeping the overall process simple and flexible to adapt to fluid early design requirements.@en