The maritime research project SAFEDOR on the significance of risk-based design and approval has been concluded after four years of intensive study. 53 Project partners from all sectors of the maritime industry were working on an innovative design approach to enhance safety at sea.
The multinational research project SAFEDOR (Design, Operation and Regulation for Safety) was co-ordinated by ship classification society Germanischer Lloyd.
Seeing safety treated as an objective rather than a constraint imposed by design rules was the initial goal of the EU-funded research project SAFEDOR. In the past four years, the project partners discussed and developed possibilities to enhance the safety of ships. Three major achievements have been accomplished:
– SAFEDOR partners created a framework for risk-based design which is now documented in a handbook for naval architects and marine engineers.
– The development of an approval process for risk-based ships which is being submitted to IMO.
– Applications: A series of innovative ship and system designs that show the practicability of the SAFEDOR approach.
Novel Designs for Five Ship Types
Safety used to be added to a design during its later stages based on existing rules. SAFEDOR makes safety an integral part of the design. Research focused on five ship types: cruise ships, ro-ro/ro-pax vessels, gas tankers, oil tankers and container vessels. For these, formal safety assessments and novel designs were generated. Documentation was submitted to IMO. All documents of submission can be downloaded from the website https://www.safedor.org[safedor.org].
Framework
SAFEDOR has developed a risk-based regulatory framework. The elements include an approval process, risk evaluation criteria, requirements for documentation and key personnel as well as onboard documentation. Taken together, this makes it possible to produce innovative ships with enhanced economics and increased safety.
Risk-Based Ship Design
The book “Risk-Based Ship Design” (ISBN 978-3-540-89041-6) is another result of the SAFEDOR project. It describes methods, tools and application of risk-based ship design and aims to provide an understanding of the fundamentals and details of the integration of risk-based approaches into the ship design process.
The project will officially close with the Final Conference on April 27 and 28, 2009 in London at the International Maritime Organisation.
Source: https://www.gl-group.com/presse/7587.php[Germanischer Lloyd]
