Simplified and Advanced Approaches for Evacuation Analysis of Passenger Ships in the Early Stage of Design

Abstract

In order to improve the survival capability of passenger and ro-ro ships in event of fire or flooding, in the last few years a set of international Regulations has been issued. In particular, the Regulation SOLAS "Safe Return to Port" is addressed towards design criteria able to guarantee adequate functionality of the ship when a casualty occurs. The Regulation requires the evacuation of the ship when a given threshold of damage (i.e., fire and flood) is exceeded. The evacuation analysis has become of primary importance even in the early-stage design. Indeed, the new amendments to SOLAS Regulation II-2/13.3.2.7 makes the evacuation analysis mandatory for both new and existing passenger and ro-ro ships since the early steps of the project. In this paper, the current IMO Guidelines have been analysed, and a case study for the evacuation of a 3600-person cruise ship has been carried out by means of both a simplified and an advanced method. To perform advanced calculations, two different software, based on virtual reality, have been used and the results have been compared with simplified method ones.

Exploring a Flooding-Sensors-Agnostic Prediction of the Damage Consequences Based on Machine Learning

“…The complex internal subdivision together with the short freeboard at the bulkhead deck and short metacentric radius leads to a difficult assessment of the consequences of a flooding scenario without the help of proper tools. Moreover, passenger ships carry thousands of persons implying usually timeconsuming evacuation procedures [2]. Hence, to mitigate the consequences of a flooding casualty on passengers and crew, it is essential to start evacuation as soon as possible after damage if the ship will sink, capsize or anyway cannot be any more considered safe.…”

Prospects for use of extended reality technology for ship passenger evacuation simulation

“…In this paper, use of XR is discussed in the context of shipping industry. This technology is already finding its application in the assessment of evacuation routes in the urban and building environment (Ding et al, 2021), but yet waits to make an impact in traditionally conservative maritime domain that includes shipbuilders and shipowners (Nasso et al, 2019). Possibilities of use of XR are given in the period of pre-accident prevention, accident response and post-accident analysis along with the discussion and conclusions.…”

A Fast Algorithm for Onboard Progressive Flooding Simulation

“…In particular, the sink of Costa Concordia highlighted the vulnerability of large passenger ships and the difficulties associated with the prediction of flooding dynamics after an accident [1]. Large passenger ships have a very complex non-watertight subdivision within the main compartments as well as above the bulkhead deck [2]. The internal subdivision may reduce the free surface moment but lead to possible asymmetric flooding scenarios and to a difficult flooding sequences prediction [3].…”