Stability investigation damaged ships

Abstract

There are many areas in which naval vessels could improve safety standards, although naval vessels are not necessarily regarded as less secure than the civil vessels. Although the navies never have considered water on deck a problem, it seems that this problem has a critical value in the ship damage stability analysis. As an example, this damage should be investigated if the ship has a low freeboard. For this research various studies and calculations have been carried out on several designed test vessels. It is possible to decide which criteria to use in terms of damages for each type of vessel, for example a landing ship faces more risk having grounding or raking on its bottom. This technical paper concludes with a method that helps and supports the naval architect in the analysis of damage stability. In this way, the naval engineer is able to determine which of the existing criteria fits best with the requirements of the ships function by following these few principles.