SOLAS 2009 STABILITY REQUIREMENTS: IMPLEMENTATION

Abstract

January 2009 saw the introduction of substantial changes to SOLAS, commonly referred to as SOLAS 2009. Not only have significant parts of Chapter II-1 completely changed, but so have the methodologies for assessing survivability of certain ship types.

This paper provides an overview of some of the main topics and how Lloyd’s Register is adapting to provide necessary industry solutions and support, immediately and into the future. It provides an insight into the probabilistic requirements, our approval processes, developments and our participation in defining industry standards.

It is evident in this paper that the discussions predominantly revolve around passenger ships. This is due to their complexity and the conflict between the new regulations for survivability assessment moving from a restrained deterministic requirement to a risk-based probabilistic solution. It also highlights real issues over the difficulties of implementing this methodology. This conflict in overall design is less pronounced for dry cargo ships, which did not have to comply with a general damage stability standard until 1992 when the probabilistic concept was introduced for dry cargo ships only. Under SOLAS 2009, a modified requirement has been implemented. However, the fundamental issues remain the same.