The ISM Code and the ISPS Code: A critical legal analysis of two SOLAS regimes

Within the comprehensive body of law encompassed by the International Convention on Safety of Life at Sea, 1974 (SOLAS), there are two regimes that are topical and outstanding in the current maritime milieu. These are the international safety management and the international ship and port facility regimes, both characterized by two codes serving as the centre of gravity of each, namely, the ISM Code and the ISPS Code, respectively. In this article the concept of the code as a legal instrument is perused following which a critical legal analysis is carried out of the two above-mentioned Codes, including their backgrounds, the evolutionary process culminating into the regimes and their interrelationships. Several anomalies and inadequacies in the two regimes are identified but in the final analysis it is concluded that both instruments are salutary additions to the body of convention law generated by the International Maritime Organization (IMO). They will undoubtedly influence the continuing development of international law in the field of maritime safety and security.     

Investigations of vehicle securing without lashings for Ro-Ro ships

To reduce the area on deck occupied by each car and the labour and time required for lashing and unlashing cars, it has been proposed by the author that in some conditions, cars on decks could be transported without lashing. To evaluate cargo securing based on this “lashing-free” concept, computational code was developed to calculate the vehicle–deck interactions for various ship motions. The code was structured by incorporating a vehicle model into a piece of ship motion calculation code. A series of time-domain simulations were conducted to evaluate vehicle securing. It was found that for a target ship consisting of a 6000-unit Ro-Ro vessel, vehicle securing is mainly influenced by the ship's rolling motions and is highly dependent on the wave height and loading conditions. It was suggested from the analysis that vehicles could be secured without being lashed in a large area of the ship in specific weather conditions and on some routes with less adverse sea states. However, it is still suggested that conventional lashing holes should be constructed on the deck because in severe sea states the cars will still need to be lashed. The limitations of the current investigations are also presented. The relevant research work was carried out at the Division of Ship Design and Engineering, Department of Shipping and Marine Technology, Chalmers University of Technology.     

The place of the ISPS Code in the legal international regime

The adoption of the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS Code) is the latest response of the international shipping community to the increasing threat posed by acts of terrorism at sea. The ACHILLE LAURO incident of 1985 showed that the traditional law against piracy was not adequate to deal with new types of unlawful acts against international shipping, especially those involving acts of terrorism. The 1988 Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation (SUA Convention) and the technical and administrative measures adopted by the Maritime Safety Committee of IMO in 1986 and 1996 attempted to develop a broader regime to deal with unlawful acts against international shipping.However, the events of September 11, 2001 showed that additional measures were still needed to prevent terrorist attacks against ships.     

From privilege to peril

This article addresses the growing concern over the diminishing legal rights and increasing responsibilities of those in command of ships today. A number of high-profile maritime accidents have focussed on the dilemma faced by shipmasters who appear to be held responsible for actions over which they have little or no control. This seems to indicate that the traditional privilege and honour associated with command appears to have become a risky burden. The article discusses the legal rights and responsibilities that shipmasters have today in terms of international maritime law and policy. Four case studies are utilized to illustrate the problem.     

Fault Diagnosing System of Steam Generator for Nuclear Power Plant Based on Fuzzy Neural Networks

All kinds of reasons are analysed in theory and a fault repository combined with local expert experiences is establishedaccording to the structure and the operation characteristic of steam generator in this paper. At the same time, Kohonen algo-rithm is used for fault diagnoses system based on fuzzy neural networks. Fuzzy arithmetic is inducted into neural networks tosolve uncertain diagnosis induced by uncertain knowledge. According to its self-association in the course of default diagnosis. thesystem is provided with non-supervise, self-organizing, self-learning, and has strong cluster ability and fast cluster velocity.     

3-D computational method of wave loads on turret moored FPSO tankers

A three-dimensional method of calculating wave loads of turret moored FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading) tankers is presented. The linearized restoring forces acting on the ship hull by the mooring system are calculated according to the catenary theory, which are expressed as the function of linear stiffness coefficients and the displacements of the upper ends of mooring chains. The hydrodynamic coefficients of the ship are calculated by the three-dimensional potential flow theory of the linear hydrodynamic problem for ships with a low forward speed. The equations of ship motions are established with the effect of the restoring forces from the mooring system included as linear stiffness coefficients. The equations of motions are solved in frequency domain, and the responses of wave-induced motions and loads on the ship can be obtained. A computer program based on this method has been developed, and some calculation examples are illustrated. Analysis results show that the method can give satisfying prediction of wave loads.     

The effect of plastic constraint on the initiation of ductile tears in shipbuilding structural steels

In this paper, the effect of plastic constraint on the initiation of ductile tears in four different shipbuilding structural steels has been experimentally studied by measuring the J-integral and crack opening displacement COD at initiation in three-point bend specimens with deep and shallow notches. Experimental results of seven groups of different strength alloy steels show that both Si and Ji values of ductile tear from the shallow crack specimens which have less constraint flow field are significantly higher than those of deeply notched specimens. Slip-line-field analysis shows that, for shallow crack, the hydrostatic stress is lower than that from standard deeply cracked bend specimen, which develops a high level of crack tip constraint, provides a lower bound estimate of toughness, and will ensure an unduly conservative approach when applied to structural defects, especially if initiation values of COD and J-integral are used.     

Simulation System Design of 3-D Panorama of Ship Motions in Wave

In this paper a 3-D panoramic simulation system of a ship is described which is developed with the MAXSCRTPT language and VC + + as programming tools on the platform of 3 Dsmax. The strip theory method is applied to the motion prediction of the mono-hull. The time history solutions of heave and pitch are obtained in the condition of head sea to provide the primary data on panoramic simulation. The simulation system has following functions: 1) digital simulation; 2 ) panoramic simulation; 3) environmental set-up; 4) render preview and output.     

Potential and benefits of AIS to Ships and Maritime Administrations

The Universal Automatic Identification System (AIS) provides a huge variety of potential applications and services which exceed the well known ship-to-ship data exchange. The purpose of this paper is to address the most important AIS services, in particular the AIS position report and the AIS safety-related and binary messages (“AIS telegrams”). The main issue is the impact of this new technology on the on-board use of AIS in collision avoidance (and its limitations) as well as the impact on shore-based services such as Vessel Traffic Service (VTS), port management and the need of an effective AIS network.