Time basis ship safety assessment model for a novel ship design

As the size of ships grow and new types of ships (so-called novel ships) begin to appear, a single maritime accident can cause a massive loss of life and damage to the environment and property. To prevent and mitigate maritime accidents, the European Commission conducted the SAFEDOR project. The International Maritime Organization is developing new standards, such as the Formal Safety Assessment. From such activities, a considerable number of good methodologies, processes and tools have been developed. However, these standards are still not easily implemented for a novel ship design because of time and budget limitations in the design. From this perspective, a time basis ship safety assessment model has been proposed in this paper. This model will support the design process with repetitive and rapid safety assessments by establishing a common understanding among stakeholders in the early design phase without the need to reveal designers' intellectual properties. As the models consider the time between failure propagation as time for damage mitigation, it is possible to generate more cost-effective risk control options or to give more design freedom. Furthermore, the damage effects assessment database using the model will be helpful for decision making in an emergency during operation phases. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.