ABS rules versus reliability based design of bulk carriers: a comparative analysis of ship design approaches

摘要

This paper presents a comparison of the ABS Rules approach for ship design to the recently developed LRPD Reliability Based Design approach. Three elements of the design process are used for comparison. These are the Bottom Plating Thickness, the Bottom Longitudinal Section Modulus and the Hull Section Modulus. The development of the calculations is shown to help understand how the results are achieved. The results are compared in various configurations, which are included in the appendices for reference. The comparisons are evaluated with regard to how well the LRFD results compare to the ABS results for different design criteria. Conclusions are made concerning the relevance of these comparisons to the effort of advocating a move towards LRFD Reliability Based Design procedures. Finally, software development is discussed with a view to the future acceptance of the new approach and the initiation of a transition to LRFD Reliability Based Design procedures.