RESOLUTION MSC.287(87)

 

(adopted on 20 May 2010)

 

ADOPTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL GOAL-BASED SHIP CONSTRUCTION STANDARDS FOR BULK CARRIERS AND OIL TANKERS

 

 

THE MARITIME SAFETY COMMITTEE,

 

RECALLING Article 28(b) of the Convention on the International Maritime Organization concerning the functions of the Committee,

 

BEING DESIROUS that the Organization should play a larger role in determining the structural standards to which new ships are built,

 

RECALLING ALSO that among the strategic directions of the Organization relating to developing and maintaining a comprehensive framework for safe, secure, efficient and environmentally sound shipping is the establishment of goal-based standards for the design and construction of ships,

 

CONSIDERING that ships should be designed and constructed for a specified design life to be safe and environmentally friendly, so that, if properly operated and maintained under specified operating and environmental conditions, they can remain safe throughout their service life,

 

NOTING regulations II-1/2.28 and II-1/3-10 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), 1974, as amended (hereinafter referred to as "the Convention"), adopted by resolution MSC.290(87), concerning goal-based ship construction standards for bulk carriers and oil tankers,

 

NOTING ALSO that the aforementioned regulation II-1/3-10 requires that bulk carriers and oil tankers as defined therein satisfy the applicable structural requirements of a recognized organization, or national standards of an Administration, conforming to the functional requirements of the goal-based ship construction standards for bulk carriers and oil tankers,

 

HAVING CONSIDERED, at its eighty-seventh session, the proposed International Goal-based Ship Construction Standards for Bulk Carriers and Oil Tankers,

 

1.         ADOPTS the International Goal-based Ship Construction Standards for Bulk Carriers and Oil Tankers, the text of which is set out in the Annex to the present resolution;

 

2.         INVITES Contracting Governments to the Convention to note that the International Goal-based Ship Construction Standards for Bulk Carriers and Oil Tankers will take effect on 1 January 2012 upon entry into force of regulation II-1/3-10 of the Convention;

 

3.         REQUESTS the Secretary-General to transmit certified copies of this resolution and the text of the International Goal-based Ship Construction Standards for Bulk Carriers and Oil Tankers, contained in the Annex, to all Contracting Governments to the Convention;

 

4.         FURTHER REQUESTS the Secretary-General to transmit copies of this resolution and the Annex to all Members of the Organization which are not Contracting Governments to the Convention.

 

ANNEX

 

INTERNATIONAL GOAL-BASED SHIP CONSTRUCTION STANDARDS FOR BULK CARRIERS AND OIL TANKERS

 

1          PREAMBLE

 

1.1       The notion of "goal-based ship construction standards" was introduced in the Organization at the eighty-ninth session of the Council in November 2002 through a proposal by the Bahamas and Greece*, suggesting that the Organization should develop ship construction standards that would permit innovation in design but ensure that ships are constructed in such a manner that, if properly maintained, they remain safe for their entire economic life. The standards would also have to ensure that all parts of a ship can be easily accessed to permit proper inspection and ease of maintenance. The Council referred the proposal to the seventy-seventh meeting of the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) in May/June 2003 for consideration.

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* Document C 89/12/1 (Bahamas, Greece) - IMO Strategic Plan.

 

1.2       The MSC, at its seventy-seventh session, considered the matter as requested and recommended that the ninetieth session of the Council should consider it further in the context of the development of the Organization's Strategic Plan. The Committee also agreed to include a new item on "Goal-based new ship construction standards" in its work programme and agenda for its next meeting.

 

1.3       The ninetieth session of the Council, in considering the strategy and policy of the Organization for the 2006 to 2011 period, approved strategic directions regarding the development of goal-based standards for the design and construction of new ships. Subsequently, at its twenty-second extraordinary session, the Council included in the strategic directions of the Organization a provision that "IMO will establish goal-based standards for the design and construction of new ships".

 

1.4       The Assembly, at its twenty-third session in November/December 2003, when adopting resolution A.944(23) on the Organization's Strategic plan for the six-year period 2004 to 2010, resolved, inter alia, that "the IMO would establish goal-based standards for the design and construction of new ships". This decision was also reflected in resolution A.943(23) on the Long-term work plan of the Organization, up to 2010, where the subject "Goal-based new ship construction standards" was introduced in the list of general subjects.

 

1.5       The MSC commenced detailed technical work on the development of goal-based ship construction standards at its seventy-eighth session in May 2004, when a comprehensive general debate of the issues involved took place and the Committee agreed to utilize a five-tier system initially proposed by the Bahamas, Greece and IACS, consisting of the following:

 

.1        Tier I - Goals

           High-level objectives to be met.

 

.2        Tier II - Functional requirements

           Criteria to be satisfied in order to conform to the goals.

 

.3        Tier III – Verification of conformity

           Procedures for verifying that the rules and regulations for ship design and construction conform to the goals and functional requirements.

 

.4        Tier IV – Rules and regulations for ship design and construction Detailed requirements developed by IMO, national Administrations and/or recognized organizations and applied by national Administrations and/or recognized organizations acting on their behalf to the design and construction of a ship in order to conform to the goals and functional requirements.

 

.5        Tier V – Industry practices and standards

           Industry standards, codes of practice and safety and quality systems for shipbuilding, ship operation, maintenance, training, manning, etc., which may be incorporated into, or referenced in, the rules and regulations for the design and construction of a ship.

 

1.6       Following deliberation on the subject at its eighty-first session, the Committee agreed to limit the scope of its consideration initially to bulk carriers and oil tankers and consider expansion to other ship types and areas of safety at a later time.

 

2          SCOPE

 

The International Goal-based Ship Construction Standards for Bulk Carriers and Oil Tankers (hereinafter referred to as "the Standards") describe the goals and establish the functional requirements that the rules for the design and construction of bulk carriers and oil tankers of an organization recognized by the Administration, or the national rules of an Administration, shall conform to, as defined in SOLAS regulations II-1/2.28 and II-1/3-10. Additionally, the Standards establish that the above mentioned rules shall be verified as conforming to the goals and functional requirements.

 

3          STRUCTURE

 

These Standards consist of the following three tiers:

 

Tier I – Goals

 

Tier II – Functional requirements

 

Tier III – Verification of conformity.

 

4          TIER I – GOALS

 

The Tier I goals are as defined in SOLAS regulation II-1/3-10 and are reproduced here for ease of reference, as follows:

 

Ships shall be designed and constructed for a specified design life to be safe and environmentally friendly, when properly operated and maintained under the specified operating and environmental conditions, in intact and specified damage conditions, throughout their life.

 

.1        Safe and environmentally friendly means the ship shall have adequate strength, integrity and stability to minimize the risk of loss of the ship or pollution to the marine environment due to structural failure, including collapse, resulting in flooding or loss of watertight integrity.

 

.2        Environmentally friendly also includes the ship being constructed of materials for environmentally acceptable recycling.

 

.3        Safety also includes the ship's structure, fittings and arrangements providing for safe access, escape, inspection and proper maintenance and facilitating safe operation.

 

.4        Specified operating and environmental conditions are defined by the intended operating area for the ship throughout its life and cover the conditions, including intermediate conditions, arising from cargo and ballast operations in port, waterways and at sea.

 

.5        Specified design life is the nominal period that the ship is assumed to be exposed to operating and/or environmental conditions and/or the corrosive environment and is used for selecting appropriate ship design parameters. However, the ship's actual service life may be longer or shorter depending on the actual operating conditions and maintenance of the ship throughout its life cycle.

 

5          TIER II - FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS

 

(Applicable to bulk carriers and oil tankers in unrestricted navigation*)

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*    Unrestricted navigation means that the ship is not subject to any geographical restrictions (i.e. any oceans, any seasons) except as limited by the ship's capability for operation in ice.

 

DESIGN

 

II.1      Design life

 

The specified design life shall not be less than 25 years.

 

II.2      Environmental conditions

 

Ships shall be designed in accordance with North Atlantic environmental conditions and relevant long-term sea state scatter diagrams.

 

II.3      Structural strength

 

II.3.1   General design

 

The ship's structural members shall be of a design that is compatible with the purpose of the space and ensures a degree of structural continuity. The structural members of ships shall be designed to facilitate load/discharge for all contemplated cargoes to avoid damage by loading/discharging equipment, which may compromise the safety of the structure.

 

II.3.2   Deformation and failure modes

 

The structural strength shall be assessed against excessive deflection and failure modes, including but not limited to buckling, yielding and fatigue.

 

II.3.3   Ultimate strength

 

Ships shall be designed to have adequate ultimate strength. Ultimate strength calculations shall include ultimate hull girder capacity and related ultimate strength of plates and stiffeners, and be verified for a longitudinal bending moment based on the environmental conditions in functional requirement II.2.

 

II.3.4   Safety margins

 

Ships shall be designed with suitable safety margins:

 

.1        to withstand, at net scantlings*, in the intact condition, the environmental conditions anticipated for the ship's design life and the loading conditions appropriate for them, which shall include full homogeneous and alternate loads, partial loads, multi-port and ballast voyage, and ballast management condition loads and occasional overruns/overloads during loading/unloading operations, as applicable to the class designation; and

 

.2        appropriate for all design parameters whose calculation involves a degree of uncertainty, including loads, structural modelling, fatigue, corrosion, material imperfections, construction workmanship errors, buckling, residual and ultimate strength.

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*    The net scantlings should provide the structural strength required to sustain the design loads, assuming the structure is in intact condition and without any corrosion margin. However, when assessing fatigue and global strength of hull girder and primary supporting structures, a portion of the total corrosion margin may be added to the net scantlings to reflect the material thickness that can reasonably be expected to exist over the design life.

 

II.4      Fatigue life

 

The design fatigue life shall not be less than the ship's design life and shall be based on the environmental conditions in functional requirement II.2.

 

II.5      Residual strength

 

Ships shall be designed to have sufficient strength to withstand the wave and internal loads in specified damaged conditions such as collision, grounding or flooding. Residual strength calculations shall take into account the ultimate reserve capacity of the hull girder, including permanent deformation and post-buckling behaviour. Actual foreseeable scenarios shall be investigated in this regard as far as is reasonably practicable.

 

II.6      Protection against corrosion

 

Measures shall be applied to ensure that net scantlings required to meet structural strength provisions are maintained throughout the specified design life. Measures include, but are not limited to, coatings, corrosion additions, cathodic protection, impressed current systems, etc.

 

II.6.1 Coating life

 

Coatings shall be applied and maintained in accordance with manufacturers' specifications concerning surface preparation, coating selection, application and maintenance. Where coating is required to be applied, the design coating life shall be specified. The actual coating life may be longer or shorter than the design coating life, depending on the actual conditions and maintenance of the ship. Coatings shall be selected as a function of the intended use of the compartment, materials and application of other corrosion prevention systems, e.g., cathodic protection or other alternatives.

 

II.6.2 Corrosion addition

 

The corrosion addition shall be added to the net scantling and shall be adequate for the specified design life. The corrosion addition shall be determined on the basis of exposure to corrosive agents such as water, cargo or corrosive atmosphere, or mechanical wear, and whether the structure is protected by corrosion prevention systems, e.g., coating, cathodic protection or by alternative means. The design corrosion rates (mm/year) shall be evaluated in accordance with statistical information established from service experience and/or accelerated model tests. The actual corrosion rate may be greater or smaller than the design corrosion rate, depending on the actual conditions and maintenance of the ship.

 

II.7      Structural redundancy

 

Ships shall be of redundant design and construction so that localized damage (such as local permanent deformation, cracking or weld failure) of any stiffening structural member will not lead to immediate consequential collapse of the complete stiffened panel.

 

II.8      Watertight and weathertight integrity

 

Ships shall be designed to have adequate watertight and weathertight integrity for the intended service of the ship and adequate strength and redundancy of the associated securing devices of hull openings.

 

II.9      Human element considerations

 

Ship's structures and fittings shall be designed and arranged using ergonomic principles to ensure safety during operations, inspection and maintenance. These considerations shall include, but not be limited to, stairs, vertical ladders, ramps, walkways and standing platforms used for means of access, the work environment, inspection and maintenance and the facilitation of operation.

 

II.10    Design transparency

 

Ships shall be designed under a reliable, controlled and transparent process made accessible to the extent necessary to confirm the safety of the new as-built ship, with due consideration to intellectual property rights. Readily available documentation shall include the main goal-based parameters and all relevant design parameters that may limit the operation of the ship.

 

CONSTRUCTION

 

II.11    Construction quality procedures