International code for ships operating in polar waters:challenges to polar shipping safety rules in China

Abstract With the sea-ice diminishing steadily in the polar regions, there has been growing interest in new transit routes through polar waters using cost-effective transportation. Among the international regulators over polar shipping, the International Maritime Organization （IMO） is the leading body concerned with drafting marine safety and environmental protection rules. The mandatory Polar Code （International Code for Ships Operating in Polar Waters） adopted by the IMO signals the consensus among maritime states to apply compulsory rules to vessels operating in Arctic and Antarctic waters. As the standing member of the IMO and a major global shipping power, China is preparing to adopt national regulatory standards to develop an adequate vessel infrastructure and crew training system. Proceeding in parallel with the developing polar shipping industry, China will also move ahead in comprehensive collaboration with the Nordic states regarding polar issues.

Assessment of Traffic Safety State of Ship Based on Unascertained Measure

Using the theory and method of unascertained measure, an unascertained measure model and the related confidence rule are established to assess the safety state of ship. Thus, the dangerous factors in the hull system can be identified, and the accident possibility, loss, and injury degree can be forcasted. An application result shows that the the proposed method is effective in assessment of the traffic safety of ships, and it is more simple in computation than the fuzzy synthetic evaluation method. The proposed method can provide a scientific basis for realizing shipping transportation security and formulating preventive measures.

Analysis of Ship Evacuation during Tsunami Using AIS （Automatic Identification System） Data

External forces of marine weather, such as waves, currents and wind flows, affect the course and speed of a ship under way. As a result, marine accidents, such as collisions or grounding, may occur, particularly in inshore areas. On coasts where earthquakes and tsunamis occur frequently, such as the Japanese coast, a tsunami that advances into a bay from the open sea is influenced by the submarine topography. It grows into a huge wave that could cause tremendous damage to ships under way and at anchorage. A massive earthquake occurred in the Tohoku and Kanto regions of Japan on March 11,2011. In response, a tsunami alert, a tsunami warning and an advisory were issued for the entire Pacific coast region. This research investigates the evacuation behaviour of ships by AIS （automatic identification system） data in Tokyo Bay after the tsunami warning was issued. The unusual behaviour observed was attributed to the emergency evacuation of ships.

Analysis of Ship Refuge Action in Tsunami Using AIS Data： Case of the 2011 East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

A massive earthquake occurred in the Tohoku and Kanto regions of Japan on the 1 lth of March 2011. In response, a tsunami alert, a tsunami warning and an advisory were issued for the entire Pacific coast region. This research investigates the evacuation behavior of ships by AIS （automatic identification system） data in Onahama port after the tsunami warning was issued. The unusual behavior observed was attributed to the emergency evacuation of ships. This research investigates the evacuation behaviors of the vessels using the data obtained from AIS, around the Onahama Port during alerting the major tsunami warning. The result shows that most vessels in the port started evacuating approximately 10 min after the major tsunami warning and completed offshore evacuation 40 min after this warning. This contributed in understanding the actual status of the vessel evacuation. In addition, the travel paths of each vessel revealed the influence of the tsunami on the vessels. Furthermore, the exceptional situation where several vessels moved in the same direction at the speed almost same for about 2 hours was confirmed. As a result, it can be estimated that the waves that affected both vessels were the drawback of the tsunamis.

Verification of the Time Tsunami Attacked Coasting Ships Using AIS-Case of the 2011 Japan Tsunami

This research aims to elucidate the navigational situation of ships during the massive tsunami that occurred in the Tohoku district of Japan on March 11,2011. In particular, it focuses on the time the massive tsunami encountered ships. AIS （automatic identification system）, which is required to be fitted aboard large ships for identifying and locating vessels, was used for the analysis of the navigational status of ships. It was confirmed that a group of ships sailing off the coast suddenly changed course. It was also verified that the ships had been struck by the tsunami, and the time of the strike was identified. The novelty and importance of this research are as follows. First, the behaviour of many ships that encountered the massive tsunami was clarified. There are no earlier instances of simultaneous and detailed recording of the behaviour of many ships encountering a massive tsunami. Second, the movement of the ships that encountered the tsunami was analysed, and the time of the maximum wave of the tsunami was verified. The research presents, for the first time in ship history, the status of a ship at the time of a tsunami using objective navigational data.

Implementing the Safety Culture Improves the Autonomous Ships Prosperity

Since that a lot of studies and conventions take a look at the explanations of marine accidents within the maritime sectors,and also the position of the human elements that shoulder the high ratio of accidents reasons.They englobed how we learning and measuring the security culture to the human factors to mitigated the motives of incidents and accidents.the International Safety Management(ISM)Code used to be adopted by the International Maritime Organization(IMO)in order to establish a protection lifestyle inside the global maritime community,the ISM Code states that one of its key goals is to set up a“safety culture”in delivery companies,it does not without a doubt outline the that means and measuring of the term.However,a safety way of life may additionally be described as the values,practices and studying that administration and personnel share to ensure that risks are constantly minimized and mitigated to the best degree possible.The ship management structures are nearly completely computerized and any automation failure may additionally cause accidents with damages to human life,to the environment,to the ships,to the port facilities and so the products transported,Safety administration in transport pursuits to stay removed from or mitigate the implications of any incidents bemused.The lookup is based on a descriptive approach,the qualitative methodology,as this methodology is the most capable of providing a comprehensive image of the effectivity of getting to know and measuring the protection culture.The lookup aimed to existing the amendment that ought to take area in the ISM code and use a new science for monitoring the performance and effectiveness of the code as a guide line and to create a spirit of credibility amongst the our bodies supervising the implementation of the Code to cope the self sufficient ship technology.

Ship Fuel and Carbon Emission Estimation Utilizing Artificial Neural Network and Data Fusion Techniques

Ship energy consumption and emission prediction are the main concern of the shipping industry for ship energy efficiency management and pollution gas emission control. And they are attracting more global attention and research interests because of the increase in global shipping trade volume. As the core of maritime transportation, a large volume of data is collected around ships such as voyage data. Due to the rapid development of computational power and the widely equipped AIS device on ships, the use of maritime big data for improving and monitoring ship’s energy efficiency is becoming possible. In this paper, a fuel consumption and carbon emission model using the artificial neural network (ANN) framework is proposed by using AIS, ship machinery, and weather data. The proposed work is a complete framework including data collection, data cleaning, data clustering and model-building methodology. To obtain the suitable parameters of the model, the number of neurons, data inputs and activate functions were tested on both AIS-based data and MRV-based data for comparison. The results show that the proposed method can provide a solid prediction of ship’s fuel consumption and carbon emissions under varying weather conditions.

AI Safety Approach for Minimizing Collisions in Autonomous Navigation

Autonomous agents can explore the environment around them when equipped with advanced hardware and software systems that help intelligent agents minimize collisions.These systems are developed under the term Artificial Intelligence(AI)safety.AI safety is essential to provide reliable service to consumers in various fields such asmilitary,education,healthcare,and automotive.This paper presents the design of an AI safety algorithmfor safe autonomous navigation using Reinforcement Learning(RL).Machine Learning Agents Toolkit(ML-Agents)was used to train the agentwith a proximal policy optimizer algorithmwith an intrinsic curiositymodule(PPO+ICM).This training aims to improve AI safety and minimize or prevent any mistakes that can cause dangerous collisions by the intelligent agent.Four experiments have been executed to validate the results of our research.The designed algorithmwas tested in a virtual environment with four differentmodels.A comparison was presented in four cases to identify the best-performing model for improvingAI safety.The designed algorithmenabled the intelligent agent to perform the required task safely using RL.A goal collision ratio of 64%was achieved,and the collision incidents were minimized from 134 to 52 in the virtual environment within 30min.

Development of Bayesian Network Models for Risk-Based Ship Design

In the past fifteen years, the attention of ship safety treatment as an objective rather than a constraint has started to sweep through the whole maritime industry. The risk-based ship design （RBD） methodology, advocating systematic integration of risk assessment within the conventional design process has started to takeoff. Despite this wide recognition and increasing popularity, important factors that could potentially undermine the quality of the results come from both quantitative and qualitative aspects during the risk assessment process. This paper details a promising solution by developing a formalized methodology for risk assessment through effective storing and processing of historical data combined with data generated through first-principle approaches. This method should help to generate appropriate risk models in the selected platform （Bayesian networks） which can be employed for decision making at design stare.

Open-Type Ferry Safety System Design for Using LNG Fuel

In this feasibility study, we investigate the viability of using Liquefied Natural Gas （LNG） fuel in an open type Ro-Ro passenger ferry and the associated potential challenges with regard to the vessel safety systems. We recommend an appropriate methodology for converting existing ships to run on LNG fuel, discuss all the necessary modifications to the ship’s safety systems, and also evaluate the relevant ship evacuation procedures. We outline the basic requirements with which the ship already complies for each safety system and analyze the additional restrictions that must be taken into consideration for the use of LNG fuel. Appropriate actions are recommended. Furthermore, we carry out a hazard identification study. Overall, we clearly demonstrate the technical feasibility of the investigated scenario. Minimal modifications to the ship’s safety systems are required to comply with existing safety rules for this specific type of ship.

Safety Analysis for Thread Pair Clearance of Safety Mechanism of Three Gorges Project Ship Lift

The Three Gorges Project（TGP） ship lift employs 4 safety mechanisms, of which one consists of a rotary locking screw and a nut jaw column. The thread pair clearance（TPC） of safety mechanisms is set at 60 mm. Owing to influential factors,the TPC changes randomly in the upward/downward-stroke of the ship chamber. If it diminished to 0, the safety mechanism would be jammed, thus resulting in disastrous accidents. By the bearing test of the drive system, 7 influential factors have been studied; 15 other influential factors（including 8 factors of manufacture and installation deviation, 3 factors of chamber offset, 2 factors of external load and 2 factors of wear） have been analyzed based on the design data. Results by the limit superposition reveal that the TPC change varies from -43.8 mm to ＋48.4 mm when the water level of the chamber ranges from 3.4 m to 3.6 m. According to the Gaussian distribution, the probability of the TPC change varied from -53.7 mm to ＋58.8 mm in the most detrimental status is99.74%, therefore, the TPC remains in a safe condition. This paper puts forward that two-phase operation of the drive system should be adopted so as to reduce the maximum TPC change to -44.6 mm.

Scrap Activities on the Coastal Zone： Dynamic Model for the Recycling of Ships

This paper describes the main activities of the ship recycling facilities that have moved to the Asia continent and puts emphasis on environmental and working conditions under the umbrella of the new IMO （International Maritime Organization） convention. However, the convention is not enforced yet and the legal gaps found on limited existing regulations do not impose strict rules on the shipping industry and at the same time offer motives for the safe recycling of ships. Ship-owners seem reluctant to send their vessels for scrap but rather prefer to employ them till the last minute, preferably in areas where the environmentally-friendly concept is not of primary importance. The dynamics of this specialized industry can be better shown by examining variables such as legal instruments, occupational health and safety hazards, geographical allocation of scrapping sites, scrap prices, safety working plans and volume to be scrapped. The next step is to build a simulation model in order to discuss the relevant scenarios. The first scenario is based on the current conditions where the ship-owner＇s decision is mainly affected by the fluctuations of the market and whether the effectiveness of existing regulations can improve the working environment in terms of health and safety. The second scenario refers to the situation when the IMO Convention is implemented, then it will produce two major recycling markets, the first one for the convention ships and the second for non-convention ships.

Design and implementation of a visual monitoring system to ensure safety in the water surrounding a container vessel

Container vessels navigate among the world＇s ports, frequently passing through narrow and congested waters. Due to the many layers of containers on a container vessel＇s decks, it is difficult for the crew to be aware of all fishing vessels and other obstacles in a container vessel＇s radar observation blind zone. This greatly increases the risk of collisions and other accidents. Given such great challenges to safe navigation and safety management with container vessels, their security risks are severe. An effective visual monitoring system can improve the safety of the water area surrounding container vessel by eliminating a vessel＇s observation blind zone, providing an effective safety measure for vessels navigating fishing zones and other troublesome areas. The system has other functions, such as accident recording, ship security, and monitoring of loading and unloading operations, thus ensuring the ship operates safely. Six months＇ trial operation showed that the system facilitates safe navigation of container vessels.

Stability Analysis of Bohai Oil-Drilling Ship No. 6 Under Static and Cyclic Loads

This paper presents a procedure to calculate the safety factor against sliding of a marine gravity structure subjected to a combination of static and cyclic loads. This procedure claculates the stress at the sliding surface by the finite element method (FEM) and takes the dynamic properties of clay into account. With this procedure, the stability of a Bohai oil-drilling ship is analyzed. The calculated safety factor is much smaller than 1, indicating that this oil-drilling ship would fail just as what had happened to it.

Big data-driven automatic generation of ship route planning in complex maritime environments

With the rapid development of the global economy, maritime transportation has become much more convenient due to large capacities and low freight. However, this means the sea lanes are becoming more and more crowded,leading to high probabilities of marine accidents in complex maritime environments. According to relevant historical statistics, a large number of accidents have happened in water areas that lack high precision navigation data, which can be utilized to enhance navigation safety. The purpose of this work was to carry out ship route planning automatically, by mining historical big automatic identification system(AIS) data. It is well-known that experiential navigation information hidden in maritime big data could be automatically extracted using advanced data mining techniques;assisting in the generation of safe and reliable ship planning routes for complex maritime environments. In this paper, a novel method is proposed to construct a big data-driven framework for generating ship planning routes automatically, under varying navigation conditions. The method performs density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise first on a large number of ship trajectories to form different trajectory vector clusters. Then, it iteratively calculates its centerline in the trajectory vector cluster, and constructs the waterway network from the node-arc topology relationship among these centerlines. The generation of shipping route could be based on the waterway network and conducted by rasterizing the marine environment risks for the sea area not covered by the waterway network. Numerous experiments have been conducted on different AIS data sets in different water areas, and the experimental results have demonstrated the effectiveness of the framework of the ship route planning proposed in this paper.

Food Safety Traceability Systems in the Maritime Catering Logistics

This paper aims to explore food safety traceability in the onboard food and beverage operations on cruise ships through a case study approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with galley and foodservice staff. Additionally, a self-administered questionnaire was designed and distributed to logistics managers and employees of three Egyptian cruise companies. Results indicated that cruise ships in this study use paper-based and manually-entered (electronically stored) data traceability systems. Managing food safety by effective product recall, complying with legislation, and improving product quality are among the most important perceived benefits identified by foodservice staff. Maintaining a good reputation, ensuring food safety, reducing foodborne illnesses, suppliers' commitment to quality specifications, and maintaining guest confidence are considered the most important benefits from implementing a food traceability system. The results also depicted that the challenges managers face implementing or improving a food traceability system included high cost, absence of unified traceability standards between cruise companies and food suppliers, shortage of skilled staff, and lack of knowledge and satisfaction with current foodservice operation systems onboard cruise ships. Other findings elucidated that the critical success factors for implementing traceability included strict food traceability legislation, ensuring the adequacy and correctness of traceability information, adopting a food traceability system by the cruise company management, the standardization of food traceability information identification, and technology support for food traceability systems implementation from government. Other factors were reported of less importance. This research concluded the urgent need for more cooperation between cruise companies, food suppliers, and relevant governmental authorities to adopt food traceability systems and the need of authorizing and setting compulsory standards and regulations.

Real-time Monitoring of Subsea Gas Pipelines,Offshore Platforms,and Ship Inspection Scores Using an Automatic Identification System

The aim of this research is to develop an algorithm and application that can perform real-time monitoring of the safety operation of offshore platforms and subsea gas pipelines as well as determine the need for ship inspection using data obtained from automatic identification system(AIS).The research also focuses on the integration of shipping database,AIS data,and others to develop a prototype for designing a real-time monitoring system of offshore platforms and pipelines.A simple concept is used in the development of this prototype,which is achieved by using an overlaying map that outlines the coordinates of the offshore platform and subsea gas pipeline with the ship’s coordinates(longitude/latitude)as detected by AIS.Using such information,we can then build an early warning system(EWS)relayed through short message service(SMS),email,or other means when the ship enters the restricted and exclusion zone of platforms and pipelines.The ship inspection system is developed by combining several attributes.Then,decision analysis software is employed to prioritize the vessel’s four attributes,including ship age,ship type,classification,and flag state.Results show that the EWS can increase the safety level of offshore platforms and pipelines,as well as the efficient use of patrol boats in monitoring the safety of the facilities.Meanwhile,ship inspection enables the port to prioritize the ship to be inspected in accordance with the priority ranking inspection score.

Finite element analysis on nut post structure of Three Gorges Project ship lift

A nonlinear finite element model of the nut post reinforced concrete （RC） structure of the safety mechanism in the Three Gorges Project （TGP） ship lift was built by ANSYS software. Some irregular structures such as the nut post and the rotary rod were divided by curved surface into a series of regular parts, and the structures were all meshed to hexahedron. Constraint equations were defined between two interfaces with different element sizes and mesh patterns. PRETS179 elements were used to simulate the preload in the tendons and the pre-stressed screws, and the loss of prestressing force was calculated. Five extreme load cases were analyzed. The stress of each part in the structure was obtained. The results indicate that the maximum compressive stress of concrete C35 is 24.13 MPa, so the concrete may be partially crushed; the maximum tensile stress of the grouting motar is 6.73 MPa, so the grouting motar may partially fracture; the maximum yon Mises stress of the rotary rod is 648.70 MPa, therefore the rotary rod may partially yield.

Fault Tree Analysis of Fire and Explosion Accidents for Dual Fuel （Diesel/Natural Gas） Ship Engine Rooms

In recent years, China's increased interest in environmental protection has led to a promotion of energy-efficient dual fuel(diesel/natural gas) ships in Chinese inland rivers. A natural gas as ship fuel may pose dangers of fire and explosion if a gas leak occurs. If explosions or fires occur in the engine rooms of a ship, heavy damage and losses will be incurred. In this paper, a fault tree model is presented that considers both fires and explosions in a dual fuel ship; in this model, dual fuel engine rooms are the top events. All the basic events along with the minimum cut sets are obtained through the analysis.The primary factors that affect accidents involving fires and explosions are determined by calculating the degree of structure importance of the basic events.According to these results, corresponding measures are proposed to ensure and improve the safety and reliability of Chinese inland dual fuel ships.

SOCP的RAM/SHIPNET一个交互功能的船舶寿命周期成本和安全性决策支持系统

当前,船舶经营者正不断寻求提高船舶安全性、可靠性和寿命周期成本效益,以应对全球航运业日益激烈的竞争。实施以可靠性为中心的维修计划,在消耗更少资源的基础上维持和提高船舶的可靠性,是全球船舶经营人的目标。在此介绍一个目前在美国实施的船舶作业合作计划(SOCP:Ship Operations Cooperative Program),该计划以提高船舶寿命周期成本效益和安全性为目的。主要介绍了SOCP的RAM数据库中所包含的信息、RAM数据的收集和共享方式以及RAM数据库/SHIPNET的功能结构,并给出一个该系统的应用实例,最后简述了美国海岸警备队的海上安全评估计划(MSTEP:Marine Safety Evaluation Program)及其与SOCP的RAM数据库/SHIPNET的联系。