Introduction

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Evacuation of large passenger vessels is a complex operation that involves multiple inputs and decisions made in the face of what has now become a dynamic catastrophic situation.

In order to make the process of evacuating the vessel safer for all involved, the SafePASS consortium are developing the tools to automate and reduce the crew actions to undertake the evacuation, while also reducing the stress on the passengers involved.

A key workstream within the project has been to look at the life saving appliances and how they can be designed to work with the vessels of the future.

The challenge with the evolving design of large passenger vessels, with increasing number of persons onboard, there is a need for the life saving appliances (LSA) to also evolve to be adaptable to the vessel designer needs.

These potentially radical designs coupled with increasingly diverse backgrounds and high number of crew onboard, the ability to be able to train and operate the LSA safely is paramount, therefore any automation or simplification of the LSA is of benefit to the safety of all onboard.

Through the project a number of LSA designs have matured which answer the needs of flexibility, reduced crew training, automated actions, with the designs being tested at model scale to ensure their viability.

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Background 

Vessel and LSA design are governed by the IMO (International Maritime Organisation) requirements in SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) and are based around the conventional lifeboat and liferaft style of LSA.

As vessel design has started to evolve more radically in recent years, the traditional layouts inside the vessel have been challenged by the designers with many novel arrangements and distinctive brand features being developed for a particular cruise line. However, LSA design has evolved with iterative designs to the traditional lifeboats and liferafts –with them generally becoming larger, and more aesthetically pleasing when stored onboard.

As well as looking at the potential future LSA that could be installed onboard a vessel the SafePASS Consortium have developed a Common Operating Platform (COP), which is a management tool for use during an Evacuation by the Crew, as it takes all the conditions and parameters around the vessel – passenger locations, vessel condition, damage location etc and advises the Evacuation Team of the most effective and efficient way to abandon the vessel. As it can be linked to the LSA, the toll will also be aware of how far the evacuation has progressed with the number of persons onboard the survival craft.

 

Solution 

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In order to understand what could be required of the LSA manufacturers for the large passenger vessels of the future, the stakeholders involved – LSA OEMs, owner, yard, regulatory bodies took stock and identified the key requirements and needs of the future LSA.

These requirements led to a large number of potential design solutions, some very radical, ranging from individual escape systems through to methods which ensure the vessel never can sink.

As the worst might actually happen, with the vessel having to be abandoned no matter how good the solution to keep it afloat may be, the designs were down selected and evolved to two key designs, one based around inflatable (softshell) technology and one around the rigid (hardshell) hull boat style. 

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Softshell Solution

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Th project conceptualized a mobile LSA system which offers dynamic access points for evacuees along the ship’s side on a specific deck, with each offering an escape way to a novel survival craft. The escape way units are stored away from the embarkation point and are brought into position once evacuation needs have been defined by the SafePASS COP. The escape way units move to the required position horizontally along the deck used for LSA access, to give the most efficient and effective evacuation of the vessel.

When the ship is underway, LSA units and escape ways are divided and stowed in different locations on board to provide more flexibility for dynamic embarkation in an evacuation scenario.

When required, the escape way units are connected to vertical evacuation passages, allowing controlled descent transfers for evacuees from deck to a platform located at the ship’s side, at sea level. Novel survival craft steer to the escape way platforms autonomously, based on data from the SafePASS COP and positioning technology, then once fully boarded move away from the platform to a safe location. 

While technically advanced, the solution draws on practical lessons learned to simplify elements of LSA system functionality for ease of crew use – fewer crew actions to deploy (process sis automated), less maintenance, easier training using new techniques including augmented reality.