Statutory and Operational Damage Stability by a Monte Carlo Based Approach

The paper describes the extension of a Monte Carlo based damage stability simulation method for the generation of approval documents for both statutory and operational damage stability. The intention of this development is that the advantages of the Monte Carlo damage stability simulation concept can be used without the necessity to ask for alternative design approval procedures during the statutory approval by the classification society. This means that the same damage stability documentation must be generated as by the conventional damage stability calculation. To generate the required approval documentation, the individual probabilities for each damage case have to be determined and the different damage cases have to be sorted into so called damage zones, which is required by the classification societies. Within one damage zone, the splitting of damage cases was found to be necessary to avoid the computation of probabilities greater than 1. This extended method is then applied to the computation of damage stability during the operation of ships, which means that the method can now be applied in situ to real loading conditions, which makes the ship operation more flexible. This new capability is also interesting for those ships which carry a substantial amount of project deck cargo.