ClassNK and NMRI Convene Workshop on Damage Stability

Leading Classification Society ClassNK and Japan’s National Maritime Research Institute (NMRI) brought some of the world’s leading specialists on structural safety to Tokyo for an international workshop on risk-based assessment of ship safety held jointly by the two organizations in Tokyo on 11 October, 2011.

The event, which included presentations from top experts from the IMO and Europe’s leading maritime universities as well as leading researchers from NMRI and ClassNK, drew over 100 attendees from throughout Japan’s maritime industry.

In addition to Q&A sessions held after each speaker’s presentation, all of the presenters took part in a lively panel discussion on damage stability at the end of the event. While the panel discussion touched on a wide variety of important structural and technical subjects, the impact of bottom damage on ship safety proved to be one of the hottest topics.  As a result of the intense discussion, the expert panelists confirmed the following important points:

 

• New IMO standards should be based on both goal-based and risk-based approaches.
• It would be possible to use probabilistic approaches to develop bottom damage stability requirements.

 

In addition to these discussions, a number of other important points were raised during the discussion, including:

  

• That the introduction of probabilistic approaches would make it possible to scientifically assess ship safety as well develop new innovative ship designs.
• Risk-based approaches to bottom damage stability requirements should consider the unique characteristics of grounding incidents.

 

As bottom damage stability requirements are expected to be debated by the IMO’s SLF Sub-Committee as part of revisions to Chapter II-1 of the SOLAS convention, and as Project GOALDS is currently investigating the use of risk-based damage stability models and requirements, the workshop presented an important opportunity for leading minds from Asia and Europe to exchange opinions and ideas about this increasingly important topic in maritime safety.

For more information about the workshop, please contact: ClassNK Hull Department
TEL： +81-3-5226-2017 / FAX： +81-3-5226-2019 / e-mail： [email protected]