The “Mirror Flags”: Ship registration in globalised ship breaking industry

The incorporation of new international regulations is a rational way to avoid the use of substandard Asian ship-breaking yards. However, more restrictive regulations and agreements could lead to increase the proliferation of the use of third countries in connection with ship recycling industry. The new Open Registries provides ship-owners with legal loopholes in order to avoid strict national legislations and international rules, thus the “genuine link” disappears and the ship-owner’s responsibilities relax. Ship-breaking industry is a complex interconnected system with many important key actors, such as shipping companies, ship-owners, ship registries, brokers, and ship-breaking yards, all of which are discussed in this paper under the vision of a new global ship recycling policy, and focusing in those cases when a ship changes its flag state registration just before scrapping. This paper analyses the most common flags selected in order to send ships for scrapping. Empirical investigation to determine the relation between States and ship-breaking industry has been carried out using the multivariate statistic technic known as “Simple correspondence analysis”. The results show a relation between ship registry selection and ships that are about to end their lives, re-flagging solely for the purpose of scrapping. If we observe the evolution of the different flag states at the end of the ship’s life, we find incremented use of new open registers or “Mirror Flags”. General abuse of new registries in ship-breaking industry would lead to a ship-breaking industry without rules or transparent procedures, which could violate labour and environmental standards.     

Simplified analytical method for evaluating web girder crushing during ship collision and grounding

The paper presents a simplified analytical method to examine the crushing resistance of web girders subjected to local static or dynamic in-plane loads. A new theoretical model, inspired by existing simplified approaches, is developed to describe the progressive plastic deformation behaviour of web girders. It is of considerable practical importance to estimate the extent of structural deformation within ship web girders during collision and grounding accidents. In this paper, new formulae to evaluate this crushing force are proposed on the basis of a new folding deformation mode. The folding deformation of web girders is divided into two parts, plastic deformation and elastic buckling zones, which are not taken into account for in the existing models. Thus, the proposed formulae can well express the crushing deformation behaviour of the first and subsequent folds. They are validated with experimental results of web girder found in literature and actual numerical simulations performed by the explicit LS-DYNA finite element solver. The elastic buckling zone, which absorbs almost zero energy, is captured and confirmed by the numerical results. In addition, the analytical method derives expressions to estimate the average strain rate of the web girders during the impact process and evaluates the material strain rate sensitivity with the Cowper-Symonds constitutive model. These adopted formulae, validated with an existing drop weight impact test, can well capture the dynamic effect of web girders.     

Low carbon maritime transport: How speed,size and slenderness amounts to substantial capital energy substitution

Three responses that reduce energy consumption and CO₂ emissions in maritime transport are slower speeds, larger vessels and slender hull designs. We use crude oil carriers as our illustrative example; these represent nearly a quarter of international sea cargo movements. We estimate the potential and costs in these which can all be described as capital substituting for energy and emissions. At different degrees of flexibility and time scales: speed reductions are feasible immediately when there are vessels available, though more capital will be tied up in cargo. Deployment of larger and more slender vessels to a greater extent requires fleet renovation, and also investments in ports and infrastructure. A novel finding in our analysis is that if bunker costs rise as a result of emission costs (fees, quotas), then this may depress speeds and emissions more than if they result from higher oil prices. The reason is that for higher oil prices, more capital tied up in cargo may give cargo owners an interest in speeding up, partly counteracting the impulse from fuel costs that tends to slow vessels down. Emission costs, in contrast, do not raise cargo values.     

Operational profiles of ships in Norwegian waters: An activity-based approach to assess the benefits of hybrid and electric propulsion

Various regulations are imposed on shipping to increase energy efficiency and reduce environmental impacts. Alternative fuels and power systems are among the solutions for compliance with these regulations. The power system of a ship may not operate optimally because of the diversity of the operational profile during its lifetime. This article uses an activity-based approach and big data from the Automatic Identification System (AIS) to study the operational profiles of eight ship types operating in Norwegian waters around mainland Norway in 2016. The aim is to identify ship types that can benefit from electric and hybrid propulsion through analysis of their operational profiles. Close to shore, the operational profiles of various ship types are similar, and all ships spend a great proportion of their time with lower loads. As the distance from shore increases, the operational profiles of various ship types follow distinct trends. Among the considered ship types, reefers spend more operational time close to the diesel engine design condition. On the other hand, offshore and passenger ships show the most dynamic operational profiles and spend a large percentage of their operational time with a partial load, away from diesel engine design conditions. Such ships can benefit from hybridisation, diesel-electric propulsion, and other electric concepts, such as batteries and fuel cells. Another option is to downsize diesel engines for better operation while fuel cells and batteries supply peak and partial loads. Operational profiles are plotted and details of the approach are presented in the article.     

Improvement actions for reducing transport’s impact on climate: A shipper’s perspective

The purpose of this paper is to compare improvement actions for reducing transport’s impact on climate from the shipper’s perspective. To that end, it introduces an evaluation tool for comparing improvement actions in transport systems in terms of transport costs, impact on climate, and barriers to implementation. Within the context of five international flows involving a food producer, three actions—namely, engaging intermodal transport, increasing load factors by double-stacking pallets, and using high-capacity vehicles—were evaluated. Shipment data were collected to calculate reductions in transport costs and impact on climate, whereas interviews with the food producer were conducted to identify barriers. Results showed that reductions in transport costs and impact on climate attributed to the improvement actions differed among the five flows. Engaging intermodal transport reduced the system’s impact on climate by 27–53%, double-stacking pallets by 0–23%, and using high-capacity vehicles by 7–15%, with differences primarily due to different freight densities. Concerning barriers to implementation, the improvement actions also varied by flow. Altogether, unlike other papers, which have examined improvement actions separately, this paper offers an evaluation tool for comparing several improvement actions at once, as applied to a particular empirical case. Shippers with multiple flows and several possible improvement actions can use the evaluation tool to efficiently reduce their systems’ impact on climate.     

肌萎缩侧索硬化症的重复电刺激研究

目的研究肌萎缩侧索硬化症(ALS)患者近端神经低频重复电刺激复合肌肉动作电位波幅递减的特点及其相关影响因素。方法应用常规低频重复电刺激(RNS)方法,分别刺激近端腋神经和副神经,前瞻性研究了87例ALS患者低频RNS复合肌肉三角肌和斜方肌动作电位波幅递减特点,以及和相关影响因素的关系,同时将其中RNS波幅递减阳性患者与同期39例重症肌无力患者的低频RNS波幅递减情况进行比较。结果 1ALS组三角肌和斜方肌RNS波幅递减阳性率分别为43.7%和49.4%,斜方肌阳性率高于三角肌。2ALS组三角肌和斜方肌RNS波幅递减与性别、起病年龄、病程、ALSFRS-r评分和疾病进展率无关。3ALS组三角肌和斜方肌RNS波幅递减与症状波动之间明显相关,症状波动者RNS波幅递减明显。4重症肌无力组三角肌和斜方肌RNS波幅递减幅度明显高于ALS组。结论 ALS患者近端肌肉RNS波幅递减现象并不少见,不能作为排除ALS的标准。斜方肌RNS波幅递减阳性率高于三角肌。重症肌无力患者RNS波幅递减幅度明显高于ALS患者,临床上对ALS患者伴无力症状波动且RNS波幅递减阳性者,应慎重诊断。     

论船舶融资租赁出租人特殊风险之防范——以对租赁物的强制措施为视角

海商法关于船舶优先权、船舶留置权的规定使船舶融资租赁人面临由于船舶特有法律制度带来的特殊风险,为防范此类风险,应该从对租赁物——船舶采取的一般民事保全措施或海事请求强制措施的角度入手,对于采用何种措施,实践界和理论界并无定论,争论比较大的法律问题便是"当事人是否可以申请对自己名下的船舶采用强制措施",本文指出:船舶融资租赁出租人可将租赁物作为财产保全请求或者海事保全请求的担保财产请求法院扣押相关证书,防止租赁物被拍卖变更产权的风险。     

支线LNG运输船船型设计研究

主要介绍支线LNG船船型设计中的特殊原理与设计特点,包括主要船型特点、液货罐(C型独立舱)的外形设计及保冷、蒸发气(BOG)的处理、主推进系统选型。并结合30000m3 LNG运输船船型设计作了进一步的深入研究。     

船舶气囊下水过程中船体强度计算方法研究

基于气囊下水过程受力分析及气囊囊体力学特性,将气囊下水运动过程分析与全船有限元分析方法相结合,研究了气囊下水工艺船体强度分析中载荷及边界条件的特征;二次开发了加载的PCL程序并提出了一种等效约束方式,对某57000DWT散货船的气囊下水过程进行了强度计算与惯性释放方法做了比较,验证其可靠性;并提出一种计入船体挠度与气囊压缩量的相互影响的准静定算法;分析了船体与气囊接触面宽度的影响,获得有益结论。     

船舶下水气囊之最佳缠绕角研究

船舶下水气囊采用锦纶帘子布缠绕制成。根据受力分析,船舶下水用的气囊随着工作高度的不同应有不同的缠绕角度,文中对如何选取工作高度以及其最隹缠绕角的计算方法作了研究。