The damage stability criteria for both passenger and cargo ships are going to change from 2009, after finalization of a long and engaging harmonization activity at IMO. Especially in the case of passenger ships, the new probabilistic methodology, significantly different from the present deterministic approach, is likely to concur at modifications of the design procedure, entailing a revision of traditional techniques toward a new perspective, able to embrace such innovative hint. In this paper, some specific issues of the new probabilistic rules will be commented, in the opinion that such standards are an interesting but also extremely challenging resource to perform an appropriate and consistent design of future passenger ships. The radical renewal of such standards, key reference for the ship designer, is an occasion to observe the great impact that current innovation in rule-making philosophy, and possibly in the ship design methodology, can have on the educational path that should be accordingly reviewed and worked out by academic institutions involved in this field, in order to satisfy the requirement of an higher educational profile.
展开▼
