5th In

nternational Connference on Collision and Gro

ounding of Ships

Goal Ba
ased Sh
hip Safe
ety App
plication
n in larg
ge cruis
se ship design
n
Kai Levande
er
STX Europe Cruise & Ferries (Reetired), SeaKey Naval
N
Architecturee, Turku Finland
d

Abstract:
A
New, innovativve ship designss often fall outtside the ruleboook safety fram
mework. IMO has
h responded bby developing goal-based shiip
construction standards. For paassenger vessells this goal is thhat the ship itsself is its best lifeboat.
l
This m
means that in case
c
of collisionn,
fi both passengers and crew
w can stay onbooard as the ship
p proceeds to poort. This goal bbased safety approach has beeen
grounding or fires
applied in the design
d
of the woorlds largest crruise ship Oasis of the Seas.

Introduction
n
Safetyy is a key ellement in thee design of all
passenger veessels like crruise ships or
o passenger-ccar
ferries. Traditionally safetyy rules have been developped
f
ships in
empirically, based on experience from
operation. Today
T
naval architects have
h
powerfful,
computer baased tools, like 3D-CAD for drawinng
work, but alsso many differrent calculatioon programs for
f
system optim
misation and simulation. This makes it
possible to evaluate
e
a neew design inn detail alreaady
during the design phasse. Also IM
MO, flag staate
authorities annd class societties have seenn the benefits of
theoretical caalculations annd simulationns both for ruule
development and for evaluuation of new innovative shhip
solutions. Thhis paper pressents the application of gooal
base safety philosophy
p
inn the design of the worldds
largest cruisee ship Oasis of the Seas. The ship was
w
designed and built by STX
X Europe for Royal
R
Caribbeean
International in 2009. A sister
s
ship wiill follow in the
t
autumn 2010..

he cruise bussiness
Th
Rapid
R
Growth
h in Cruise Sh
hip Size
The cruise operation as we see itt today startedd
baack in the earrly 1970s. Thhe size and th
he capacity of
th
he vessels havee been doubleed every ten yeears, as can bee
seeen from the example
e
of veessels designeed and built byy
ST
TX Europe inn Finland forr Royal Carib
bbean Cruises
Lttd. (Fig 1). These
T
six gennerations of ships
s
built foor
RC
CCL are nott unique, butt similar exam
mples can bee
prresented for otther major cruuise operators, like Carnivaal
Crruise Lines and
a Norwegiaan Cruise Lin
ne. The strongg
deevelopment of
o the cruise market and the passengeer
baase, especiallyy in North A
America, has supported
s
this
grrowth. The cruuise vessels bbuilt at STX Europe
E
yard inn
Tu
urku are 225 000 GT inn size and carry 5 4000
paassengers in double occuppancy. The tw
wo Oasis
class vessel weere contractedd at a cost of 900 Millionn
Eu
uro per vesseel and repressent an important business
deecision both for
fo the ship ow
wner and the yard.
y
The rules
an
nd regulationns for passeenger vesselss have beenn
in
ntended for much
m
smaller vvessels and th
he increase inn
sizze means that
t
instead of applyin
ng traditionaal
prrescriptive rulles equivalentt safety principles had to bee
ussed in the desiign and constrruction.

5th In
nternational Connference on Collision and Gro
ounding of Ships

Figure 1: The grrowth in cruise shhip size and capaccity

Goal Based Ship

S
Safety
Passennger ships have
h
been operating with
w
excellent safeety records, but a few fatall accidents haave
turned publicc opinion on the
t safety of cruise
c
ships and
a
passenger-carr ferries. IMO
O, flag state authorities and
a
class societies have ressponded by evaluating the
t
possibilities too further increeasing the safe
fety standards

or large vessels with several thousand

ds of persons
fo
on
nboard. Now
w IMO intrroduces a new
n
SOLAS
S
reegulation II-1//3-10 on Gooal-based ship
p constructionn
sta
andards for bulk carriers aand oil tankerss.
Fo
or passenger vessel the IM
MO goal is thaat Ship is its
ts
beest lifeboat annd in the eveent of any cassualty personss
ca
an stay safely on board as th
the ship proceeds to port.

p
indicators
Cruise ship performance

The naval arcchitect must understand

u
thhe technical and
a
economical factors
f
that are
a guiding both
b
cruise shhip
building and cruise operattion (fig 2). The cruise shhip
a
owner alwayys first asks about the ship price and
compares it to the pricce per passeenger for othher
newbuildingss and for thee ships in thee existing fleeet.
Shipyard buuilding cost is more rellated to Grooss
Tonnage thann to the passeenger capacityy. For Europeean
yards, buildinng cost is in Euro,
E
the owneers are more tiied
to US dollarss. More imporrtant than the building costt is
the money making
m
potential for the veessel. What will
w

th
he average tickket income bee and the onb
board revenue??
Crruise ships haave very largee crews, but laabour costs aree
lo
ow and partlyy based on tipps. Bunker co
ost has been a
veery small parrt of the totaal operating cost, but has
raapidly increassed during 20008. CO2 em
mission is alsoo
im
mportant and passengers
p
askk about the caarbon footprinnt
off their cruiise vacation.. Safety, reeliability andd
en
nvironmental friendlinesss have beecome basicc
reequirements for
f all cruisee ships. If a new designn
co
oncept cannot fulfil these demands, no sh
hip owner willl
bee interested.

5th In
nternational Connference on Collision and Gro
ounding of Ships

Figure 2: Key peerformance indicators

Developmentt trends
Panamax and Post Panam
ma Cruise Sh
hips
The Pannama Canal haas affected cruuise ship desiign
for many years. The maxim
mum beam off 32,2 m allow
wed
in the locks made ships long
l
and narroow. To increaase
the number of
o outside balccony cabins more
m
decks weere
added in the superstructure
s
e, but stability then became a

prroblem. This problem waas solved by

y making thee
su
uperstructure narrower thaan the hull, with balconyy
caabins on both sides of a cenntre casing. Th
his reduces thee
to
op weight of the
t vessel andd allows morre decks to bee
ad
dded. The olld locks resttrict the size of Panamaxx
veessels to below
w 100 000 GT
T.

Figure 3: Cruisee ship developmennt trends

Panama Canaal Authority has

h started thee construction of
a third row of
o locks, withh impressive dimensions.
d
T
The
increased sizee is not introdduced for the cruise industtry,
but to enablee large contaiiner vessels to
t transit. Muuch
larger cruise ships will allso be able too pass from the
t
Caribbean too the West Coast. The new locks are
a
scheduled to be completedd by 2014. Thee new locks will
w
be large enouugh to allow todays Postt Panama shipps,

ke Freedom of the Seas to pass (fig 4).

4 Air draughht
lik
is restricted byy the free heeight under the
t Bridge of
o
Americas and will demandd some inno
ovative funneel
arrrangement. A new cruisee ship size, New
N
Panamaxx
class, will devvelop for the bigger locks replacing thee
ex
xisting Panam
max size. Megga Ships, like Oasis of thee
Seeas are, however, too largge even for thee new Panamaa
lo
ocks (fig 3).

5th In
nternational Connference on Collision and Gro
ounding of Ships

Figure 4: Old annd new Panama loock dimension

New Cruise Ship

S
Types
When cruise ships grow in size
s
and beaam
increases therre are more annd more insidde decks areass in
the vessel. To
T maintain and preferabbly increase the
t
number of paassenger cabinns with windoows or balconnies
special layouuts must be used.
u
In the Panamax shiips
more decks could be added by narrowing the
t
superstructuree . In the Postt Panama shipps of Voyageer
and Freedom
m type somee inside cabinss have windows
overlooking the
t indoor promenade. The new locks in

Paanama Canal make it posssible to incrrease the hulll

beeam and add more deccks in the superstructure
s
e,
in
ncreasing from
m 45 cabin ddecks in old Panamax
P
ships
to
o 67 in new
w contemporarry NPX desig
gns. In ships of
o
mega
m
size, the superstructuree can be longiitudinally spliit
in
n two halves with an ouutdoor promen
nade deck inn
beetween, like in the Oasis of the Seas (fig 5 and 6)).
Th
he traditionall prescriptivee SOLAS ru
ules were noot
in
ntended for this
t
type off innovationss and a new
w
ap
pproach neeeded for sship safety assessmentt.

Figure 5: Size and

a type evolutionn

Figure 6: Oasiss of the Seas witth split superstruccture

afe and reliab

ble
Sa
IM
MO Goal Bassed Standard
The goal--based ship standards are developed onn
th
he basis of a five-tier
f
system
m, consisting of goals (Tieer
(Tier II), veerification andd
I), functional requirements
r
accceptance critteria (Tier III)), rules and regulations
r
foor
sh
hip design annd constructioon (Tier IV) and industryy
prrocedures and quality system
ms (Tier V).
IM
MO has defineed as the goaal for passengeer vessels thaat
tthe ship itselff is its best liffeboat. This means that inn
caase of casuallty both passengers and crew
c
can stayy
saafely onboard as the ship pproceeds to po
ort. Safe areas
sh
hall be availabble onboard foor passengers and crew afteer
a fire, collisionn or groundinng as long ass the casualtyy
th
hreshold has not
n been exceeeded. Fire deteection and firee

5th In
nternational Connference on Collision and Gro
ounding of Ships

fighting shall prevent the fire

f from spreaading in the shhip
to adjacent fire
f
zones. Foor damage staability, the neew
IMO probabiilistic rule iss applied. Paartial power for
propulsion annd hotel load shall be avaailable also affter
the casualty, as well as essential
e
safeety and comffort
systems. Onlyy if the casuaalty exceeds the
t threshold an
evacuation annd abandonm
ment of the shhip is necessaary
(fig 7).

Figure 7: IMO Goal

G Ship is its best
b lifeboat

Fire safety
Alternative Design
D
The inncreasing sizee and passennger capacity of
cruise ships mean that also
a
the publlic spaces muust
increase in sizze. In the presscriptive SOLA
AS rule the max
m
length of the main fire zones is 40 m, but up to 48 m
can be used in certain cases. The areaa should be leess
than 1600 m2. In many vessels
v
the siize of the maain
dining room and the show
w theatre has been limited by
this rule evenn after extendiing the fire zoone length to 48
m. In the Voyager and Freedom

cllass cruise shiips

the indoor proomenade reacches through several
s
main fire
f
zones. Here fire doors aree installed at each main fire
f
bulkhead. Onn the promennade floor deck level, wheere

paassengers wallk, sliding dooors are used, but

b in the threee
deeck high uppper part of thhe promenad
de atrium bigg,
veertically hingeed folding dooors are installeed.
In
n Oasis of thee Seas Alternnative Design ( SOLAS Chh.
II--2 Reg.17) haas been applieed. The ship is
i much wideer
th
han 40 m and the average size of the firee zones is welll
ab
bove 1600 m2. Extensive ssimulations an
nd fire hazardd
an
nalysis were used
u
to verify
fy that equall safety weree
acchieved in sellected, represeentative areass (fig 8). Alsoo
th
he indoor prom
menade is muuch larger thaan in previous
veessels and dooubled roller shutters are used as firee
daampers in the main fire bullkheads. In ad
ddition normaal
sizze fire doorss in the bulkkheads are insstalled on thee
esscape routes (ffig 9).

Figure 8: The A
Alternative Desiggn principle was used for represenntative areas in laarge fire zones

5th In
nternational Connference on Collision and Gro
ounding of Ships

Figure 9: Fire shhutters and doors on indoor promeenade

Outdoor spaaces between the

t split supeerstructure
Outdoor spaces between the split supersttructure
introduced a new fire safeety concern (ffig 10 and 122). Fire
loads were simulated annd different solutions tessted to
demonstrate equal safety with SOLAS. Fire breakk areas
were introduuced in the laay out to sloow down sprread of
fire.Longitud
dinal fire breeak hinders fire
f spread froom one
side to anotheer in the splitt superstructurre. This shoulld be at
least 3 m widde. Use of all combustibless is prohibitedd in this
area, except deck-coveering with low-flame spread
characteristics (fig 11).Traansverse firee breaks slow
w down
spread of fire due to any poossible wind effects.
e
These are 6m
long zones in the vicinityy of the MV
VZ boundaries. Low
(<0,5m) livinng vegetationn is allowed, but no combbustible
furnishings.
Figurre 10: Board Waalk aft

b
in Centraal Park
Figure 11: Fire breaks

Figure 12: Cenntral Park betweeen the split supersstructure in Oasiis of the Seas

Figure 13: Survivability

S
afteer grounding or co
ollision

5th In
nternational Connference on Collision and Gro
ounding of Ships

Damage stab
bility
Probabilisticc Damage Staability Rule
The new rule is based on thhe probabilityy for damagess to
the hull, founnd by analyzinng the length, penetration and
a
vertical extennt of damagess reported byy ship collisioons
and groundinngs (fig 13). The
T probabiliity that the shhip
will survive is
i calculated for
f several thoousand differeent
damage casess to get the attained
a
indexx. This must be
bigger than the
t required index specifiied in the IM
MO
rule. Requireed index inccreases with the number of
persons onboard and the leength of the shhip. The numbber

nd crew. Thee
off persons inccludes both ppassengers an
in
ndex also depeends on the liffeboat capacitty. Most cruisee
sh
hips are built for long iinternational voyages withh
liffeboat capacitty for 75% oof all persons onboard. Foor
th
he remaining 25% life raafts or marin
ne evacuationn
staations are proovided. For a cruise ship
p of Panamaxx
sizze, the requireed index is
ab
bout 0,8 and for
f a Mega Siize vessel it approaches
a
0,99
(fi
fig 14).

Figure 14: Requuired subdivision index

Probabilisticc Damage Staability Rule

The new
n
probabiliistic rule reqquires a lot of
calculation work.
w
The rulle is technicaally complicatted
and the interrpretation is still
s
not fullyy established. In
cruise ships where the beeam is not reestricted by any
a
canal locks or similar, the required index can be
attained by ussing a wide body
b
concept. Increased hull
h
beam gives high
h
initial staability and thhis improves the
t
attained indeex. In cruisee ships, the internal waater
tightness is improved
i
by installing paartial watertigght
bulkheads at the ship sidees to preventt down floodiing
from comparttment to comppartment whenn the ship heels.

The suurvival probbability can be furtheer

nvestigated ussing numericcal simulation
n of floodingg
in
ev
vents and moddel testing.
Fo
or Oasis of the
t Seas the IMO probabiilistic rule was
ap
pplied ahead of
o entry into foorce (fig 15, 16 and 17)
9000 damage
d
cases calculated
The Required
R
Indeex R = 0,88 and Attainedd
Index A = 0,91
Numerrical simulatioons and modeel tests using a
perform
mance based approach suggest survivaal
probabbility of 0,99

Figure 15: Wateertight integrity annd freeboard deckk

5th In
nternational Connference on Collision and Gro
ounding of Ships

Figure 16: Wateertight integrity too 40 deg

t port
Safe return to
Redundant Power
P
Supplyy and Propulsion
The IMO new rule also
a
requires that passengers
and crew in the
t case of cassualty should stay onboard as
the ship procceeds to port. This demannds a redundaant
power supplly and propulsion. Withh diesel-electtric
machinery, thhis can be seccured by locaating the diesselgenerators inn two or moree engine room
ms separated by
watertight annd fire insulaated bulkheadds (fig 18). All
A

Figurre 17: Partial bulkheads above bullkhead deck

uxiliary system
ms must be ddivided in the same way. A
au
saafe solution is to place thhe diesel-geneerators in twoo
seeparate main fire zones and have separate enginee
caasings all the way to the ffunnel. Also the
t propulsionn
sh
hould consist of
o at least twoo units, locateed in protectedd
co
ompartments (fig
( 19). All eessential safety
y system musst
also remain in use and somee basic comfo
ort maintainedd
fo
or passengers and
a crew.

Figure 18: Reduundant power suppply and propulsioon

p propulsion, all units steerable
Figure 19: Triple pod

Casualty thrreshold exceed

ded
Evacuation
If, the damage from
m the casuallty exceeds the
t
survival threeshold the ship must be evacuateed.
Extensive work
w
was caarried out too optimize the
t
evacuation froom any space onboard. Evaacuation traffic

mulations weere based onn MSC Circu

ular 1033 andd
sim
reepresentative passenger
p
dem
mographics ussed. Assemblyy
staations are inn protected sspaces, well-k
known by alll
paassengers, cloose to the liifeboat embaarkation areass.
Assembly time must be less tthan 60 minuttes (fig 19).

Figure 19: Evacuuation routes andd assembly stationns

100

5th In
nternational Connference on Collision and Gro
ounding of Ships

Life Saving Appliances

A
The lifeeboats and liffe raft stationns occupy muuch
space along thhe embarkatioon deck in a laarge cruise shhip.
Passenger cappacity grows proportionallyy more than the
t
ship length when
w
size is increased.
i
In a cruise ship of
200 000 GT with 6000 passengers and
a
2000 creew
onboard theere is not enough lenggth along the
t
embarkation deck
d
if traditiional 150 persson lifeboats are
a
used. If two 150
1 person liffeboats are com
mbined into one
o
rescue vessel for 3004000 persons the space
s
demandd

along the lifebooat deck is redduced and the LSA capacityy

caan be increaseed to the requuired 80009000 personss.
Th
he use of largger life boats must be apprroved by class
an
nd flag state following
f
the equal safety
y principle. If
I
liffe boats are stowed
s
in launnching positio
on outside thee
sh
hip side, embbarkation is fast and the davit system
m
sim
mplified. Reinnforcement neeeded for the wave
w
loads onn
th
he life boats in extreme sseas must be evaluated byy
model
m
testing (ffig 20).

Figure 20: Largee life boat for 3700 persons and lauunching system

Operation saafety
Designinng and buildding ships to the traditionnal
prescriptive rules or following the new
n
goal bassed
approach doees not autom
matically guarrantee safe and
a
reliable cruisse for the passsengers. Alsso the operatiion
must follow the
t same safetty philosophy.. Safer operatiion
of a large cruuise ship demaands both skilll and dedicatiion
from the officcers and crew
w. All control system onboaard
should suppoort and guide the crew on the day to day
d
operation, buut especially when
w
accidennts or causalitties
demand speccial actions. In
I Oasis off the Seas, the
t
following soluutions were used (fig 21):
Bridge fullyy dedicated for navigation

- Safetyy Centre adjacent to the brid

dge
- Integraated and redunndant navigatiion system
- Improvved ability to manage safetty and securityy
inciident
- Same principle adoppted for the Engine
E
Controol
Cenntre
- Video broadcastinng from brid
dge to largee
screeens at assem
mbly stations for effectivee
com
mmunication
- Reliabble passenger and crew co
ount system at
a
asseembly stationss
- Publicc address systeem extends to the life boats
- Surveiillance system
m for enhanceed monitoringg
of evacuation,
e
ovver 1300 CCTV
V cameras

Figure 21: Safetty centre adjacentt to the bridge

111

5th In
nternational Connference on Collision and Gro
ounding of Ships

Conclusion
Cruise operators
o
havee been optimisstic and investted
in more shipss for further growth
g
of the cruise busineess.
But the com
mpetition in thhe vacation market
m
is haard,
especially affter the crisees in the finnancial markket.
Potential passsengers havee been reluctaant to go onn a
cruise and have evaluuated also other vacatiion
alternatives. But the cruisse market is recovering and
a
now is the rigght time to pllan new shipss when shipyaard
order books are empty and
a
building cost has beeen
reduced. To create
c
a new suuccessful generation of cruuise
ships, cruise operators, naval
n
architeccts and interrior
designers muust work togetther to find thhe ideal solutioon.
They must learn from the problems
p
in previous
p
desiggns
and look foor new techhnical possibiilities that can
c
improve the performancee, environmenntal friendlineess
and safety off the new shhips. How cann the passengger
capacity be inncreased? Whhat layout shoould be used for
f

maximum
m
balcony ratio? Caan the fuel co
onsumption bee
reeduced? Whatt hull form has the bestt sea keepingg
ch
haracteristics?? What is the building cost per passengeer
in
n the new desiign? Can a larrge ship be deelivered in less
th
han 3.5 years?
Bu
ut most im
mportant willl be to un
nderstand thee
paassengers, theeir demands aand expectations. Both thee
naaval architect and the interioor designer must
m look at thee
sh
hip from the passengers
p
ppoint of view to be able too
crreate a winninng design for the next 25 years.
y
Tankerss,
bu
ulk carriers annd container vvessels are heeavy industry
bu
usiness, buildiing standard vvessel types in
n long series at
a
co
ompetitive prrices. Successs in the crruise business
deemands differrent skills. W
We must prov
vide a uniquee
ex
xperience for the
t passengerrs to fulfil theiir expectations
an
nd make them
m come bacck again for more cruises
du
uring their nexxt vacations.

Figure 22: Cruisse passengers exppect unique experriences in a safe, reliable

r
and envirronmental friendlly ship

References:
Cruise Ships Suuccess factors forr the design, IMDC
Levander , K. C
20009
IMO SOLAS 20004 Chapter II-2 Regulation 17 Alternative
A
Desiggn
IMO SOLAS 20009 Revised Chhapter II-1 Subddivision and Dam
mage
Stabbility Regulationss Explanatory Nootes from SLF 511/7

MO SOLAS 2010 New Chappter II-1 System capabilities afteer

IM
floodiing casualty on Paassenger Ships
IM
MO SOLAS 2010 New Chappter II-2 Safe Return to Port foor
Passennger Ships
Ro
oyal Caribbean Cruises
C
http://www
w.royalcaribbean
n.com and
http://ww
ww.oasisoftheseaas.com
TX Europe

Cruise
Ship R
R&D and Newbuilding Projects
ST
http:///www.stxeurope.ccom

122