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The article discusses the consideration of capsizing time in the design and provisioning of roll-on roll-off (RoRo) ferry boats to improve passenger survivability during accidents. It takes note of the hull flooding, vehicle deck breach and rolling over stages of sinking such that the estimated time to capsizing formula equates to the ship displacement over the fill rate. Scale model studies of professor C.T. Ross on the sinking of the MV Herald of Free Enterprise are also discussed.

The article discusses the provision of carbon dioxide and deluge suppression systems in enclosed roll-on roll-off decks and passenger ferry engine rooms. It takes note of the efficiency of high-pressure water mist hoses as a firefighting tool in incidents such as the M/V Norman Atlantic fire in December 2014. The International Safety Management Code, Safety of Life at Sea convention and the International Code for Fire Safety Systems regulations for suppressing fires are also cited.

The roll-on-roll-off passenger ferry MVESTONIA sank during the night of 28 September 1994 in the Baltic Sea. In October 2000, divers recovered two palm-sized test pieces from the front bulkhead of the wreck. The investigators analysed these specimens to determine whether there were any indications of deliberate blasting. Since the wreck had been submerged for almost six years, it was clear that chemical traces would not be present on the surfaces of the test pieces. Therefore, the investigators performed comparative tests on shipbuilding steel to find a microstructural criterion that exclusively characterises a blast. The shipyard Jos. L. Meyer, Germany, had built the ESTONIA and supplied shipbuilding steel plates similar to that used for building the vessel in 1979/1980. The comparative tests comprised mechanical tests, shot peening tests and blasting tests using different explosives. Testing demonstrated that blasting always formed twinned ferrite grains in the microstructure over the whole cross-section of each of the 8mm thick comparative plates. Although one of the original test pieces of the ESTONIA showed deformation twins, this was only confined up to 0.4mm underneath the surfaces and not spread over the whole cross-section. Comparative shot peening tests produced the very same pattern of subsurface deformation twins. Therefore, the twins detected in the microsection of the test pieces of the ESTONIA wreck traced back to the shot peening process performed by the shipyard in 1979/1980 and not to a deliberate blast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Alternative Diesel and Gas engine propulsion plants of Ferries and RoRos were studied. [•] Special focus on marine Natural Gas burning engines and ship waste heat recovery systems. [•] Significant savings in annual operating costs were predicted in the case of Natural Gas engines. [•] Environmental and economic optimum propulsion plant alternative was proposed in a specific case study. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: As an application to predict and mitigate the out-of-plane welding distortion by elastic FE analysis based on the inherent deformation theory, a panel structure of a pure car carrier ship is considered. The inherent deformations of different types of welded joints included in this ship panel structure are evaluated beforehand using thermal elastic plastic FE analysis. Applying idealized boundary condition to focus on the local deformation, elastic FE analysis shows that the considered ship panel structure will buckle near the edge and only bending distortion is dominant in the internal region. In order to mitigate out-of-plane welding distortion such as buckling and bending, straightening using line heating is employed. In the internal region, only inherent bending with the same magnitude as welding induced inherent bending is applied on the opposite side of welded joints (fast moving torch). On the other hand, only in-plane inherent strain produced by line heating is introduced to the edge region to correct buckling distortion (slow moving torch). The magnitude of out-of-plane welding distortion in this ship panel structure can be minimized to an accepted level. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The paper deals with the strength analysis of structural devices (platform bridges) that fasten cars to a car carrier frame. The loads of all bridges are evaluated along with the indication of the areas of load concentration. The paper presents a brief structural description of platform bridges, including their drawings performed with the help of SolidWorks software. The bridge loads have been analyzed applying Ansys software. According to the results of computer simulation of the loads, dangerous structural areas of the bridges have been identified. While making attempts to solve the established structural problems of such car carriers, suggestions for their structural improvement have been put forward, and computer simulation of loads and stress spread have been performed. The paper ends with conclusions and suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The marine Diesel engines cooling systems and its elements were changing similarly to engines construction. Evolution of the cooling systems tends to reduce sea water pipelines inside engine room. Application of a central cooling system with box coolers completely eliminates sea water pipelines from engine room. Now that solution is rarely used on ships. It can be met on smaller ships, whose power output usually does not exceed 5000 kW, for example: tugs, dredgers, barges, supply vessels, fishing vessels, ferries, cargo freighters, reefers, ice breakers, carriers, etc. - operating inland, as well as in open sea navigation. The article presents an example of practical application of the central cooling system with box coolers on the tug running in Gdynia harbour. In author's opinion, central cooling system with box coolers has a chance to spread out on bigger ships in the future. It will mainly depend on efficiency and reliability of box coolers secure systems. These systems ought to ensure correct operation of a cooling system between ship class dry-dockings. The box coolers used on the presented harbour tug are secured by ICAF system. The article presents also a proposition of solution to the cooling system with box coolers for merchant ship with power output higher up 5000 kW and advantages (disadvantages) of that solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a method for monitoring of racking-induced stresses in ro-ro ships. The approach is built on the assumption that the racking stresses are mainly induced by the roll and sway motions and therewith related inertia and gravity forces. The approach involves real-time measurement of the ship motions and scaling of the measured motions with pre-calculated structural responses from finite element analysis. The method is applied to full-scale measurement data from the Wallenius Lines PCTC Mignon. Derived stresses show good agreement with stresses derived from strain gauge measurements, indicating that the method has potential as an alternative to conventional strain-gauge-based monitoring. Motion-based stress monitoring has several potential areas of application such as providing data for decision support, for live assistance and short-term route planning, structural condition reports and for supplying feedback to the design process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Given multiple widespread stationary data sources such as ground-based sensors, an unmanned aircraft can fly over the sensors and gather the data via a wireless link. Performance criteria for such a network may incorporate costs such as trajectory length for the aircraft or the energy required by the sensors for radio transmission. Planning is hampered by the complex vehicle and communication dynamics and by uncertainty in the locations of sensors, so we develop a technique based on model-free learning. We present a stochastic optimisation method that allows the data-ferrying aircraft to optimise data collection trajectories through an unknown environment in situ, obviating the need for system identification. We compare two trajectory representations, one that learns near-optimal trajectories at low data requirements but that fails at high requirements, and one that gives up some performance in exchange for a data collection guarantee. With either encoding the ferry is able to learn significantly improved trajectories compared with alternative heuristics. To demonstrate the versatility of the model-free learning approach, we also learn a policy to minimise the radio transmission energy required by the sensor nodes, allowing prolonged network lifetime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ro-ro vessels use shipside and shore ramps as roll-on/roll-off loading facilities. Baltic Sea has not tidal effects and water level did not change very much. In same time water level fluctuations in ports areas make difficulties to establish proper access to shore for ro-ro vessels during loading and unloading operations. Flexibility of ro-ro vessel-to-shore links pan is one of the key elements for optimization of ro-ro operations in ports. Feasibility outline of pontoon ramp potential, calculation methods and practical usage is studded and presented further in the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Simplified mathematical models based upon semi-empirical regression formulae describing forces and moments acting on the hull during manoeuvres are commonly used for the preliminary evaluation of ship steering capabilities. Many semi-empirical regressions have been developed, and are broadly adopted, for the manoeuvrability prediction of single screw slow/medium speed ships. Their application for the study of twin screw vessels (cruise ships, RoRo ferries, megayachts, naval vessels, for which dedicated regression formulae are scarce) manoeuvring capabilities could lead to misleading results. These ships are usually characterised by different hull forms and more complex stern configuration due to the presence of appendages like skegs, shaft lines and brackets, which can strongly affect manoeuvrability behaviour. In this work a novel procedure to properly account for the particular geometric and stern appendage characteristics of these kind of vessels is described. A thorough analysis has been performed on a ship model equipped with 13 different stern appendage configurations and new formulae have been developed in order to describe accurately their influence on ship manoeuvring behaviour. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Recently, the port logistics market is rapidly expanding, along with the active maritime trade. To adjust to this trend and gain a competitive advantage, competition among shipping companies at home and abroad has intensified, and many efforts are being made for the improvement of customer services and cost saving. In particular, car carriers transporting more than 80% of total car import/export volume must quickly make efforts to reduce transportation costs. Much research has been conducted to improve the efficiency of maritime transportation, but studies on car carriers, which are given relatively less importance, have been lacking. The car carrier's transportation planning is similar to the vehicle routing problem, but it is much more complicated in that cars and cargo are prepared at different points in time, and cargo can be loaded not only at the departing port but also at other ports. Therefore, in an effort to solve the problem, this study has developed a meta-heuristic algorithm based on a genetic algorithm, and we have succeeded in developing a maritime transportation planning support system with the algorithm, thus making it possible to prepare various alternatives, evaluate them, and consequently support user's decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Road freight transportation has increased dramatically over recent years along with its impacts such as congestion, noise, and pollution. As a result, European and US governments have started policies to promote alternatives to road transportation, such as logistic chains containing a Short Sea Shipping (SSS) link. Road is, by definition, a more flexible means of transportation than shipping, which is usually cheaper. Therefore, to move traffic to SSS chains, it is necessary to provide fast, frequent, and reliable maritime transportation. In this sense, roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) vessels are the most convenient ships to be used, since they have smaller dwell times in port and, therefore, this is a kind of traffic likely to increase dramatically. The foreseeable increase of this kind of traffic must meet with an increase in the actual capacity by means of either improvement in performance and possible enlargements of existing terminals or the construction of new terminals. In that sense, this paper proposes a simple methodology to calculate the capacity of a RoRo terminal, whether already in operation or during its design process, and relate it to some quality standards by means of quality indicators, which should lead to the definition of Levels of Service similar to those already used in roads and airports. The paper ends by applying the methodology to a real terminal in Barcelona, Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From yachts to ferries, car carriers to submarines, a diverse fleet of ecoboats utilize fuel cell technology, with more applications on the near horizon. In this article we look at the wide variety of fuel cell projects both above and below the waves, and at some of the concept and demonstration vessels being planned. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Ship efficiency has become an increasingly important subject for ship designers and owners. Both the predicted high cost of fuel in the future and the need to reduce emissions are driving this drive for improved efficiency. The IMO is also seeking measures to reduce the CO2 emissions from ships, and their proposed Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) aims at ensuring that future vessels will be more efficient. Two ship concepts, a large RoRo vessel and a Cruise ferry, have been developed to highlight different technologies that can be used to improve efficiency. The designs show that the power demand can be reduced significantly with existing basic naval architecture methods. Optimization of main dimensions for life cycle cost, rather than building cost alone, can deliver large savings. Also, new propulsion concepts, such as triple shaft lines or Wing thrusters, yield clear propulsion power savings. Other measures to reduce fuel consumption, such as waste heat recovery and wind power, also show large gains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a LNG-fueled coastal RO/RO for the East Coast of the US trade to meet upcoming Emission Control Area (ECA) requirements. The exhaust system for this vessel is proposed to be a wet system so there is no airborne emission. The CO2 remaining in the exhaust system is removed in the exhaust stream, and remaining exhaust components are combined with cooling water to provide a cooling effluent that meets Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requirements. The concept design is carried to the point of determining operating economics, and the environmental effect of operating such ships is assessed as compared to conventional truck traffic. It was found that each ship will reduce East Coast highway truck traffic by over 1900 trucks per week. Since there are no emissions from the ship, each ship will also bring environmental advantages. It appears the ship would be economically competitive with conventional truck transport: the cost for transporting a single 53' trailer via ship is roughly $996, compared to $1245 via truck. Furthermore, the proposed three vessel shipping service could potentially remove nearly 300,000 vehicles from the road annually. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a design of the ro-pax ship for service between Marseille and Bastia on Corsica. The ship will be built by Brodosplit Shipyard for the French company CMN, and the ship delivery is scheduled for 2011. With 2484 lane metres on three trailer decks and a deck for 200 passenger cars, the vessel will have a higher cargo capacity than the existing ro-pax ships on the same route. The superstructure for the accommodation of 750 passengers will have the comfort level increased to the cruise-ferry style. The vessel will have a high operational speed and will be in compliance with the latest safety standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method is presented for the evaluation of the exhaust emissions of marine traffic, based on the messages provided by the Automatic Identification System (AIS), which enable the identification and location determination of ships. The use of the AIS data facilitates the positioning of ship emissions with a high spatial resolution, which is limited only by the inaccuracies of the Global Positioning System (typically a few metres) that is used in vessel navigation. The emissions are computed based on the relationship of the instantaneous speed to the design speed, and the detailed technical information of the engines of the ships. The modelling of emissions is also based on a few basic principles of ship design, including the modelling of the propelling power of each vessel in terms of its speed. We have investigated the effect of waves on the consumption of fuel, and on the emissions to the atmosphere. The predictions of fuel consumption were compared with the actual values obtained from the shipowners. For a Roll on - Roll off cargo/passenger ship (RoPax), the predicted and reported values of annual fuel consumption agreed within an accuracy of 6%. According to the data analysis and model computations, the emissions of NOx, SOx and CO2 originating from ships in the Baltic Sea during the full calendar year of 2007 were in total 400 kt, 138 kt and 19 Mt, respectively. A breakdown of emissions by flag state, the type of ship and the year of construction is also presented. The modelling system can be used as a decision support tool in the case of issues concerning, e.g., the health effects caused by shipping emissions or the construction of emission-based fairway dues systems or emissions trading. The computation of emissions can be automated, which will save resources in constructing emission inventories. Both the methodologies and the emission computation program can be applied in any sea region in the world, provided that the AIS data from that specific region are available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a time-domain theoretical model capable of predicting the behaviour of a damaged ship subject to progressive flooding. The model provides information in each stage of flooding, concerning the ship motions, amount of water in each flooded compartment and shear forces and bending moments acting along the ship's length. A case study is presented in which the loads acting on a passenger ro-ro ship and a tanker are studied throughout the flooding process, for various damage conditions and different areas and locations of the openings which allow the spreading of water between contiguous compartments. Conclusions are drawn regarding the time required to reach the most critical conditions and the increase in global loads due to the damage condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ship research project DESSO (Design for Survival Onboard) aims at improving the safety of RO/RO (roll-on/roll-off) ferries. The project was organized in the autumn of 2003 in order to use the research and development resources existing in Sweden, combined with international expertise, for a radical RO/RO concept with a focus on safety. One part in the early stages of this project was to identify chain breakers from previous accidents, that is, something that would have prevented, stopped, or reduced the consequences of the incident event, in order to obtain a realistic basis of "working on the right problem." A systematic and in-depth analysis of a few selected significant and well-documented disasters was made using the event-chain method. The identified chain breakers were further categorized and analyzed to find ideas and concepts that would prevent these events from occurring. These efforts were further developed into a method where the graphics of event chains with chain breakers are used in workshops with experts in two stages. In general, it was found that "Management" in most cases was the initial cause of the events. Often, "Management" was also the reason for the continuing or worsening of the events. As such, education/training and stricter routines were found to be the most effective methods for reducing accidents and are at the same time an inexpensive measure to take. This, together with online stability calculations and decision-support systems, would have prevented most of the accidents analyzed in this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this work is that of illustrating a methodology to derive, in terms of trade-offs, the relative values of transport service attributes for logistics operators. In particular, the analysis yields insights on the preferences for time-savings, frequency and reliability of the transport service in terms of price, of a sample of freight forwarders located in the South of Italy. The data is gathered using an Adaptive Stated Preference application and the estimates are obtained through a Tobit ML estimator on both company specific data and pooled data. The results show that frequency is the most highly rated characteristic of the service together with reliability. The value of time is significantly lower in both cases. The outcome is consistent across estimations and, substantially in line with the outcome of previous studies carried out on operators active at different levels of the transport-logistic chain. Until now, in fact, studies have been carried out uniquely on carriers or producers. The selection of freight forwarders allows to shed light on a segment of the market that accounts for more than half of the transport-related decisions. Furthermore, the present study focuses on a comparison between all land transport and maritime ro-ro alternatives, in line with the growing interest on the integration among transport modes. The output signals both the absence of any a priori preclusion for ro-ro maritime services and the extremely important role that frequency of service assumes for the development and the establishment of maritime services as realistic alternatives to all land transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents numerical modeling and analysis of vehicle/ship-deck interactions and a review of similar models and approaches in the literature. The physical modeling of vehicles is discussed together with the modeling of supporting structures/ship decks, and the interactions between vehicles and supporting structures. Some engineering applications are studied, for example, the dynamic structural behavior of vehicle/ship-deck systems, vehicle vibrations, damping effects of vehicles on structural systems, dynamic interactions between tires and deck surfaces, and vehicle securing on decks during ship motions. In addition, results from modal testing of unloaded and vehicle-loaded lightweight deck systems in a ship and the tire-deck,friction under dynamic loading are reported. The results are used for validation and verification of models. Finally, vehicle transportation using RO/RO ships and lashing-free vehicle concept ideas are studied and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a period of more than 10 years, a safety culture approach has been promoted through the theme "Design for Safety," which aims at integrating safety cost effectively in the ship design process. There is a considerable wealth of information amassed over these years of research and development on safety-critical areas. One of the main elements of the research and development (R&D) work is the assurance of safety within the ship design process, in the continuous search for improving the current state of affairs. Through bold steps in the direction advocated by "Design for Safety," it is slowly but steadily being recognized that this approach can greatly contribute to the overall cost-effective improvement of safety in shipping while nurturing the evolution of proper practice in the field. On this background, the paper attempts a thorough overview of related R&D developments over the last decade. Particular emphasis is placed on the developments that have taken place as part of the activities of the Thematic Network SAFER EURORO and associated research projects, which have led to the development of a recent major research initiative, the Integrated Project SAFEDOR, which is expected to lead research development in the area for the years to come. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract  To reduce the area on deck occupied by each car and the labour and time required for lashing and unlashing cars, it has been proposed by the author that in some conditions, cars on decks could be transported without lashing. To evaluate cargo securing based on this “lashing-free” concept, computational code was developed to calculate the vehicle–deck interactions for various ship motions. The code was structured by incorporating a vehicle model into a piece of ship motion calculation code. A series of time-domain simulations were conducted to evaluate vehicle securing. It was found that for a target ship consisting of a 6000-unit Ro-Ro vessel, vehicle securing is mainly influenced by the ship's rolling motions and is highly dependent on the wave height and loading conditions. It was suggested from the analysis that vehicles could be secured without being lashed in a large area of the ship in specific weather conditions and on some routes with less adverse sea states. However, it is still suggested that conventional lashing holes should be constructed on the deck because in severe sea states the cars will still need to be lashed. The limitations of the current investigations are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A refined static equivalency method (SEM) for assessing damaged stability is presented, based on the accumulation of water on the vehicle deck of roll-on/roll-off (RO/RO) vessels. For each damage case, a critical water head on the vehicle deck can be calculated that causes the ship to heel statically to a point of no return. This static elevation is compared with the dynamic one, induced by waves, which has been obtained theoretically. This enables in turn the knowledge of the critical sea state, described by significant wave height Hs, and calculating the factor s = F(Hs), essential in the new subdivision regulation, based on distribution of sea states at the moment of collision. The critical Hs for each damage case represents the capsizal resistance of damaged RO/RO vessels. The paper explores the theoretical boundary stability curve along with the uncertain zone and shows good agreement with the previous and new experimental results. Based on this analysis, new expressions for the critical relative wave height and critical sea state were derived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses the problem of damage stability criteria with reference to survival time, that is, the time available for evacuation of passengers on a damaged passenger roll-on/roll-off (RO/RO) vessel undergoing large-scale flooding on the car deck. The current various proposals at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) for the s factor (probability of surviving a given flooding) make no reference to survival time. The paper shows a direct link of the ‘prime’ s factor with the time to capsize. This link has unprecedented value for a flooding control decision support system used during a crisis on board passenger ships but is of no value for the designer for whom the s factor means simply probability of surviving with adequate survival time. The paper shows how to utilize experimental data from 30-minute test runs for survival criteria based on longer duration of tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Common effect of wave and slip of internal vehicles will make rolling of the roll-on ship serious. This is one of the important reasons for overturn of ro-ro ships. The multibody system with a floating base is composed of ro-ro ship and slipping vehicles. Takes the rolling angle of the ship and the transverse displacements of the slipping vehicles on desk as freedoms. Making use of the analysis of apparent gravitation and apparent buoyancy, the wave rolling moment is derived. By means of dynamic method of multibody system, dynamic equations of the system are established. Taking a certain channel ferry as an example, a set of numerical calculation have been carried out for rolling response of the multibody system with a floating base of a ro-ro ship and displacements response of the slipping vehicles under common effect of free slipping vehicles and wave, and a conclusion has been drawn that the motion of the numerous free slipping heavy loads will trend to be synchronous under restraining of the side-wall bulkhead with time because of repeated collision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For roll-on/roll-off (RO/RO) ships, when transporting more cars within the same deck area on board, it is necessary to adjust or take away the currant lashing system. Furthermore, this operation may also decrease the cost and time of operation as well as cargo damages due to lashing. This requirement, combined with the safety consideration on cargo shifting, may lead to concepts of lashing-free deck design. One of the lashing-free concepts suggests that in some conditions cars can be secured without using lashings, mainly depending on the friction between the tire and the deck without lashings. By doing a series of parametric studies of vehicle securing without lashings under roll and pitch motions, it was found that the value of the maximum required friction coefficient between the tires and the deck is highly relevant to the roll and pitch amplitude, pitch period, orientation of vehicles on decks, and the vertical location of vehicles from the baseline of the vessel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outlines the study undertaken within the framework of research aiming to address the compound problem of the absolute time available for passenger evacuation on a damaged passenger/roll-on/roll-off vessel undergoing large scale flooding of card deck spaces. Proposed methodology for predicting ship survival time that accounts for wave characteristics, water ingress/egress and vessel survivability.

The present paper describes an investigation on the relevance of parametric resonance for a typical fishing vessel in head seas. Results for different Froude numbers are discussed based on experimental, numerical and analytical studies.The first region of resonance is investigated. Distinct wave amplitudes are considered. Some intense resonances are found to occur. The paper compares the experimental results with non-linear time simulations of the roll motion. Very good agreement is found, even when large motions take place.Finally, in order to analyze the experimental/numerical results, analytic consideration is given to distinct parameters affecting the dynamic process of roll amplification. The influence of heave, pitch, wave passage effect, speed and roll restoring characteristics are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper presents, as a case study, a descriptive critique of the system of liner Ro-Ro services, sailing between some Turkish ports and the Italian port of Trieste. These Ro-Ro services were started in 1987, and have developed rapidly since 1992. In that year, the no-profit Turkish International Transport Association (UND) decided to independently manage a number of Ro-Ro vessels on that route. The increasing success of the service (from circa 25000 lorries in 1993, to almost 86 000 in 1998) has caused the UND shipping companies to broaden their services, introducing new vessels and improving the organization. The UND shipping companies aim to manage the fleet in the unbiased interests of all the haulage companies, maintaining rigid neutrality towards each one of the road hauliers. Outlining in detail a single subject for the case study is considered of general interest, since this system of maritime supply displays such singular and innovative elements (e.g. the capital coming from the road transport sector itself, transferring of lorry-drivers by plane, using of railway services) as to make it unique, at least in the European and Mediterranean shipping arena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]