A FAULT TREE BASED INVESTIGATION OF THE RELIABILITY OF OCEAN RACING YACHTS INCORPORATING HUMAN PERFORMANCE AND CANTING KEEL IMPACTS

摘要

High levels of failure can be seen across many ocean racing yacht classes, including the Open 60 and Volvo Open70 fleets. These failures can be costly with respect to finance, sponsorship value, crew injury or even loss of life. This work identifies common failure modes, with particular emphasis on keel impact loading, including collision testing and a finite element analysis. A fault tree analysis is developed to investigate reliability incorporating the effect of human factors. The fault tree is then used in collaboration with a velocity prediction programme to determine the sensitivity of reliability on performance. This research then leads to a new design methodology, aiming to improve the reliability of ocean racing yachts.