DYNAMIC STABILITY ASSESSMENT OF DAMAGED PASSENGER RO-RO SHIPS AND PROPOSAL OF RATIONAL SURVIVAL CRITERIA/

A clear tendency of moving from prescriptive to performance based safe ty regulations is emerging internationally. Introduction of performanc e standards is seen as beneficial to industry, allowing consideration of alternative designs as well as a rapid implementation of technologi cal innovation. In this respect, the analysis of alternative design so lutions, particularly in the case of Ro-Ro ferries, requires the devel opment of a standardized approach to demonstrate compliance with the r equirements of intact and damage stability regulations by a combinatio n of physical model experiments and numerical model tests while applyi ng probabilistic techniques in the process of assessing damage surviva bility. The procedure pertaining to model experiments is described in the SOLAS Regulation II-1/8 and the ''Interim Guidance Notes for a Uni form Model Test Procedure'' relating to this regulation. This paper co ncentrates on the development and validation of a mathematical model t o be used for numerical model testing and the proposal of rational sur vival criteria allowing for a probabilistic assessment of the dynamic stability of damaged ships, in a way that could not be simpler for pra ctical applications.