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Goal Ba
ased Sh
hip Safe
ety App
plication
n in larg
ge cruis
se ship design
n
Kai Levande
er
STX Europe Cruise & Ferries (Reetired), SeaKey Naval
N
Architecturee, Turku Finland
d
Abstract:
A
New, innovativve ship designss often fall outtside the ruleboook safety fram
mework. IMO has
h responded bby developing goal-based shiip
construction standards. For paassenger vessells this goal is thhat the ship itsself is its best lifeboat.
l
This m
means that in case
c
of collisionn,
fi both passengers and crew
w can stay onbooard as the ship
p proceeds to poort. This goal bbased safety approach has beeen
grounding or fires
applied in the design
d
of the woorlds largest crruise ship Oasis of the Seas.
Introduction
n
Safetyy is a key ellement in thee design of all
passenger veessels like crruise ships or
o passenger-ccar
ferries. Traditionally safetyy rules have been developped
f
ships in
empirically, based on experience from
operation. Today
T
naval architects have
h
powerfful,
computer baased tools, like 3D-CAD for drawinng
work, but alsso many differrent calculatioon programs for
f
system optim
misation and simulation. This makes it
possible to evaluate
e
a neew design inn detail alreaady
during the design phasse. Also IM
MO, flag staate
authorities annd class societties have seenn the benefits of
theoretical caalculations annd simulationns both for ruule
development and for evaluuation of new innovative shhip
solutions. Thhis paper pressents the application of gooal
base safety philosophy
p
inn the design of the worldds
largest cruisee ship Oasis of the Seas. The ship was
w
designed and built by STX
X Europe for Royal
R
Caribbeean
International in 2009. A sister
s
ship wiill follow in the
t
autumn 2010..
he cruise bussiness
Th
Rapid
R
Growth
h in Cruise Sh
hip Size
The cruise operation as we see itt today startedd
baack in the earrly 1970s. Thhe size and th
he capacity of
th
he vessels havee been doubleed every ten yeears, as can bee
seeen from the example
e
of veessels designeed and built byy
ST
TX Europe inn Finland forr Royal Carib
bbean Cruises
Lttd. (Fig 1). These
T
six gennerations of ships
s
built foor
RC
CCL are nott unique, butt similar exam
mples can bee
prresented for otther major cruuise operators, like Carnivaal
Crruise Lines and
a Norwegiaan Cruise Lin
ne. The strongg
deevelopment of
o the cruise market and the passengeer
baase, especiallyy in North A
America, has supported
s
this
grrowth. The cruuise vessels bbuilt at STX Europe
E
yard inn
Tu
urku are 225 000 GT inn size and carry 5 4000
paassengers in double occuppancy. The tw
wo Oasis
class vessel weere contractedd at a cost of 900 Millionn
Eu
uro per vesseel and repressent an important business
deecision both for
fo the ship ow
wner and the yard.
y
The rules
an
nd regulationns for passeenger vesselss have beenn
in
ntended for much
m
smaller vvessels and th
he increase inn
sizze means that
t
instead of applyin
ng traditionaal
prrescriptive rulles equivalentt safety principles had to bee
ussed in the desiign and constrruction.
5th In
nternational Connference on Collision and Gro
ounding of Ships
p
indicators
Cruise ship performance
th
he average tickket income bee and the onb
board revenue??
Crruise ships haave very largee crews, but laabour costs aree
lo
ow and partlyy based on tipps. Bunker co
ost has been a
veery small parrt of the totaal operating cost, but has
raapidly increassed during 20008. CO2 em
mission is alsoo
im
mportant and passengers
p
askk about the caarbon footprinnt
off their cruiise vacation.. Safety, reeliability andd
en
nvironmental friendlinesss have beecome basicc
reequirements for
f all cruisee ships. If a new designn
co
oncept cannot fulfil these demands, no sh
hip owner willl
bee interested.
5th In
nternational Connference on Collision and Gro
ounding of Ships
Developmentt trends
Panamax and Post Panam
ma Cruise Sh
hips
The Pannama Canal haas affected cruuise ship desiign
for many years. The maxim
mum beam off 32,2 m allow
wed
in the locks made ships long
l
and narroow. To increaase
the number of
o outside balccony cabins more
m
decks weere
added in the superstructure
s
e, but stability then became a
5th In
nternational Connference on Collision and Gro
ounding of Ships
5th In
nternational Connference on Collision and Gro
ounding of Ships
Fire safety
Alternative Design
D
The inncreasing sizee and passennger capacity of
cruise ships mean that also
a
the publlic spaces muust
increase in sizze. In the presscriptive SOLA
AS rule the max
m
length of the main fire zones is 40 m, but up to 48 m
can be used in certain cases. The areaa should be leess
than 1600 m2. In many vessels
v
the siize of the maain
dining room and the show
w theatre has been limited by
this rule evenn after extendiing the fire zoone length to 48
m. In the Voyager and Freedom
Figure 8: The A
Alternative Desiggn principle was used for represenntative areas in laarge fire zones
5th In
nternational Connference on Collision and Gro
ounding of Ships
b
in Centraal Park
Figure 11: Fire breaks
Figure 12: Cenntral Park betweeen the split supersstructure in Oasiis of the Seas
5th In
nternational Connference on Collision and Gro
ounding of Ships
Damage stab
bility
Probabilisticc Damage Staability Rule
The new rule is based on thhe probabilityy for damagess to
the hull, founnd by analyzinng the length, penetration and
a
vertical extennt of damagess reported byy ship collisioons
and groundinngs (fig 13). The
T probabiliity that the shhip
will survive is
i calculated for
f several thoousand differeent
damage casess to get the attained
a
indexx. This must be
bigger than the
t required index specifiied in the IM
MO
rule. Requireed index inccreases with the number of
persons onboard and the leength of the shhip. The numbber
nd crew. Thee
off persons inccludes both ppassengers an
in
ndex also depeends on the liffeboat capacitty. Most cruisee
sh
hips are built for long iinternational voyages withh
liffeboat capacitty for 75% oof all persons onboard. Foor
th
he remaining 25% life raafts or marin
ne evacuationn
staations are proovided. For a cruise ship
p of Panamaxx
sizze, the requireed index is
ab
bout 0,8 and for
f a Mega Siize vessel it approaches
a
0,99
(fi
fig 14).
5th In
nternational Connference on Collision and Gro
ounding of Ships
t port
Safe return to
Redundant Power
P
Supplyy and Propulsion
The IMO new rule also
a
requires that passengers
and crew in the
t case of cassualty should stay onboard as
the ship procceeds to port. This demannds a redundaant
power supplly and propulsion. Withh diesel-electtric
machinery, thhis can be seccured by locaating the diesselgenerators inn two or moree engine room
ms separated by
watertight annd fire insulaated bulkheadds (fig 18). All
A
uxiliary system
ms must be ddivided in the same way. A
au
saafe solution is to place thhe diesel-geneerators in twoo
seeparate main fire zones and have separate enginee
caasings all the way to the ffunnel. Also the
t propulsionn
sh
hould consist of
o at least twoo units, locateed in protectedd
co
ompartments (fig
( 19). All eessential safety
y system musst
also remain in use and somee basic comfo
ort maintainedd
fo
or passengers and
a crew.
100
5th In
nternational Connference on Collision and Gro
ounding of Ships
Figure 20: Largee life boat for 3700 persons and lauunching system
Operation saafety
Designinng and buildding ships to the traditionnal
prescriptive rules or following the new
n
goal bassed
approach doees not autom
matically guarrantee safe and
a
reliable cruisse for the passsengers. Alsso the operatiion
must follow the
t same safetty philosophy.. Safer operatiion
of a large cruuise ship demaands both skilll and dedicatiion
from the officcers and crew
w. All control system onboaard
should suppoort and guide the crew on the day to day
d
operation, buut especially when
w
accidennts or causalitties
demand speccial actions. In
I Oasis off the Seas, the
t
following soluutions were used (fig 21):
Bridge fullyy dedicated for navigation
111
5th In
nternational Connference on Collision and Gro
ounding of Ships
Conclusion
Cruise operators
o
havee been optimisstic and investted
in more shipss for further growth
g
of the cruise busineess.
But the com
mpetition in thhe vacation market
m
is haard,
especially affter the crisees in the finnancial markket.
Potential passsengers havee been reluctaant to go onn a
cruise and have evaluuated also other vacatiion
alternatives. But the cruisse market is recovering and
a
now is the rigght time to pllan new shipss when shipyaard
order books are empty and
a
building cost has beeen
reduced. To create
c
a new suuccessful generation of cruuise
ships, cruise operators, naval
n
architeccts and interrior
designers muust work togetther to find thhe ideal solutioon.
They must learn from the problems
p
in previous
p
desiggns
and look foor new techhnical possibiilities that can
c
improve the performancee, environmenntal friendlineess
and safety off the new shhips. How cann the passengger
capacity be inncreased? Whhat layout shoould be used for
f
maximum
m
balcony ratio? Caan the fuel co
onsumption bee
reeduced? Whatt hull form has the bestt sea keepingg
ch
haracteristics?? What is the building cost per passengeer
in
n the new desiign? Can a larrge ship be deelivered in less
th
han 3.5 years?
Bu
ut most im
mportant willl be to un
nderstand thee
paassengers, theeir demands aand expectations. Both thee
naaval architect and the interioor designer must
m look at thee
sh
hip from the passengers
p
ppoint of view to be able too
crreate a winninng design for the next 25 years.
y
Tankerss,
bu
ulk carriers annd container vvessels are heeavy industry
bu
usiness, buildiing standard vvessel types in
n long series at
a
co
ompetitive prrices. Successs in the crruise business
deemands differrent skills. W
We must prov
vide a uniquee
ex
xperience for the
t passengerrs to fulfil theiir expectations
an
nd make them
m come bacck again for more cruises
du
uring their nexxt vacations.
References:
Cruise Ships Suuccess factors forr the design, IMDC
Levander , K. C
20009
IMO SOLAS 20004 Chapter II-2 Regulation 17 Alternative
A
Desiggn
IMO SOLAS 20009 Revised Chhapter II-1 Subddivision and Dam
mage
Stabbility Regulationss Explanatory Nootes from SLF 511/7
Cruise
Ship R
R&D and Newbuilding Projects
ST
http:///www.stxeurope.ccom
122