A Data Driven Decision Support System for Structural Safety of Ships Moving in Waves

Abstract

Abstract The safety of ship hull structure is the most important and fundamental premise of ship operational safety at sea. For ships moving in large waves, the wave loads vary with the loading condition, ship speed and heading, incorrect operation decisions may result in large wave loads on the ship and cause severe accidents. In recent years, the technological advances made in the durability and stability of sensors, data acquisition, data processing units have made it possible to close monitor the stresses in the hull structures of ships. Such technologies are not only an approach for the crew to identify the structural state of the ship hull, but also provide the possibility of sophisticated decision support of safe operations. Although it is possible to reduce vertical bending moment by changing the heading from head seas to quartering seas, but the increasing horizontal bending moment and torsional moment might become a new threat to the structural safety of ships with large deck openings. In this paper, a data driven decision support system for structural safety of ships moving in waves is proposed. The stresses in the deck and in the bottom structure of a ship are used to calculate vertical bending moment, horizontal bending moment and torsional moment in real time, the assessment of overall strength of the ship hull under the wave loads is conducted. To construct a model for the proposal of safe operation of ships driven by monitor data, a method is devised for accurate identification of current navigation parameters based on the sensor data, which are then used for the calculation of parameters for safe operation of ship moving in waves. The method is applied to the case of a container ship moving in waves, and some conclusions are drawn based on the analysis of the results.