SAFETY FIRST: DESIGN FOR SAFETY – SHIP FIRE ENGINEERING ANALYSIS TOOLKIT

PROJECT BACKGROUND

An innovative fire safety regulatory approach concerning the fire safety on board ships is about to be introduced by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). It will be possible for shipyards and ship designers to use a new approach where alternative, performance-based fire safety design and arrangements are accepted in lieu of traditional prescriptive designs. A guideline specifying the application of the alternative design and arrangements is still under development, and its finalisation at the IMO is expected by January 2001. Alternative designs, assessed accordingly, will be accepted starting from July 2002, when IMO's  revised fire safety regulations are scheduled to enter into force.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

The aim of SAFETY FIRST is to ensure that a tried and tested fire ship engineering analysis toolkit, enabling ship designers to comply with IMO's alternative design guidelines, is in place by the year 2002.  The analysis toolkit developed within the project, according to IMO's guidelines, will be based on three pilot case studies of practical engineering relevance, involving the fire protection design of passenger and crew accommodations and technical spaces on cruise ships as well as vehicle decks on ro-ro passenger ferries.

Achieving these goals involves a good degree of scientific and applied research and development activities, which are being carried out, within the project’s scope of work, by a team of 9 partners from 4 European Countries.

The project co-ordinator is FINCANTIERI Cantieri Italiani Navali S.p.A. one of the major European shipyard worldwide leader in the passenger ship segment. Other partners are: RINA SpA, the Italian Ship Classification Society; AEA Technology plc, expert in providing Safety and Risk Management Services; D’Appolonia  consultancy firm; Bureau Veritas, the French Ship Classification Society; CETENA S.p.A., FINCANTIERI's Group R&D company; Three Quays Marine, a P&O Group company providing naval architecture and engineering consultancy; TNO, the Netherlands Organisation for  Applied Scientific Research and the University of Greenwich- Fire Safety Engineering Group.

The project partners have been awarded European Community partial financial support early in 2000, in the framework of 1998-2002 Growth Programme managed by DGXII.   The 36 months project started on 1st March 2000.

SCOPE OF WORK

Due to the novelty and complexity of SAFETY FIRST objectives, experience from civil buildings, nuclear and transport industry (railway and aircraft applications) is being considered, since fire engineering science is more developed in other industrial fields rather than in shipbuilding,.
To find an acceptable way of overcoming the limitations imposed by current fire safety regulations, that are not able to keep the pace with technological developments and customers’ demand, the SAFETY FIRST project is structured into two main parts. The first one, roughly covering 18 months of the project time scale, is based on scientific research and risk assessment techniques, aimed at assessing the applicability on ship design of performance-based analyses of fire and smoke models derived from other industrial fields. The second part of the project is devoted to practical simulations - with fire consequence modelling, qualitative and quantitative analyses of the selected Case studies - involving therefore a higher degree of applied research.

The two parts of the project are linked by Work package 1 being specifically dedicated, since the beginning, to the identification of the case studies and their specification, to ensure that the models and the tests are always focused on real design alternatives.

The project partnership is selected among leading organisations in complementary fields, providing scientific and engineering  know-how and skills:
 

EXPECTED ACHIEVEMENTS

The expected achievements of the SAFETY FIRST project are:

• To assess the practical applicability of IMO guidelines on the alternative design and arrangements with significant case studies
• To develop a library of risk models, products and materials to identify representative fire scenarios to be readily available for application on the alternative performance-based approach to fire safety design
• To provide a comprehensive toolkit for designers for practical application, including a cost-benefit analysis to assess whether the alternative design is economically convenient
• To allow EU shipbuilding industry and ship owners to take immediate advantage of the new regulations when they enter into force, leading to both enhanced competitiveness and improved safety.

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