Efficient crashworthy design of SMR-powered ship structures according to the strength-design philosophy

Paper in proceeding, 2025

The shipping industry is undergoing a transition where fossil fuel is substituted by other energy carriers such as hydrogen fuel, fuel cells, batteries, nuclear power, or a combination of these energy carriers. Retrofitting or new building of a ship that uses any of these alternatives will impose new thinking regarding requirements related to the crashworthiness of the ship concerning the ALS and ULS design criteria. The paper provides examples from literature for structure designs proposed as efficient alternatives in protecting specific parts or compartments of small modular reactor (SMR) powered ships when subjected to ship collision and grounding events and compares them quantitatively. Most of these structures follow the strength design philosophy, and the paper discusses these from the perspective of crashworthy efficiency, weight efficiency, and cost aspects.