On a risk-based method for safety assessment of a ship in critical conditions at the preliminary design stage

Abstract

The paper presents some current results of the research on development of a method for safety assessment of ships in critical conditions at the preliminary design stage. The method is expected to make it possible to perform the multi-objective and multi parametric investigations to achieve the required and optimum levels of safety by using the risk-based and formal approaches to ship safety. During the design analysis influence of parameters associated with the hull form, arrangement of internal spaces, loading conditions, position and extent of damage, cargo shift and weather impacts on safety of ships in critical conditions will be taken into account. Current capabilities of the method are illustrated by several calculation examples of influence of different arrangements of internal spaces of a cargo ship on values of the IMO formal subdivision indices such as the "Attained Subdivision Index A" and "Local Subdivision Indices LłAj". The method is still under development and its final structure will be presented in the near future.