SHARC - Structural and Hydro mechanical Assessment of Risk in Collision and grounding

Research Project, 2020 – 2022

Sweden as a shipping nation works actively and continuously for continued improvement of all types of maritime safety. Over time, Sweden has proposed important technical solutions on board ships and in their designs, but has also been involved in the development of a number of regulations, e g within ship stability, maneuvering, navigation and search and rescue (SAR). This project contributes to new knowledge and method development for simulation and analysis of vessels damaged during collision with another vessel. The purpose is to improve maritime safety and minimize the negative environmental impact that can occur in ship collisions. This will be achieved by simulating and evaluating vessel collision scenarios with regard to the damaged ship’s motions and stability, time for evacuation and rescue, emissions that pollute the sea such as oil, and risk analysis for capsizing, sinking and environmental impact. The simulations and analyzes will be carried out for different vessel types, sea states, wave encounter directions, etc., to achieve as general results as possible. The novelty with the project is that the methodology and simulation model can be used for real-time simulations to study the inflow and outflow of cargo/water and how it affects the ship’s stability, structural integrity and survival capability against capsizing and sinking. An important intermediate goal is that the method should be used as decision support in the event of accidents such as collision and grounding and for rule development.