Page 4th Cover: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (July 2004)

Joint Bulker Project Seeks Industry Input

In an effort to ensure uniform ship quality and construction standards around the world, there are currently two initiatives underway which seek to formulate a common suet of rules for the construction of the world's most com- mon ships, bulk carriers and tankers.

Common rules for bulk carriers have taken another step forward as the 1ACS

Joint Bulker Project (JBP) team have made a series of presentations to shipowners, events meant to convey information as much as they are designed to seek industry input to the rules.

The JBP is a collaboration of the world's leading classification socieites, and includes BV, CCS, ClassNK, GL,

KR, RINA and RS. The aim of the Joint

Bulker Project is to develop a set of common I ACS rules and procedures to determine the scantlings of structural members of single or double hull bulk carriers of more than 295 ft. (90 m) in length. The first draft of those rules has now been presented to industry in

Shanghai, Tokyo, Pusan, New York and

Rome, and a review of the draft will be complete by October 2004.

The new rules are scheduled to enter into force with all I ACS members on

July 1, 2005.

Jean-Francois Segretain, regional

Marine manager at Bureau Veritas, is a member of the Steering Committee of

JBP, and said "We have had excellent feedback from owners at all our consul- tation meetings, and after the meeting in

London today we will be well placed to complete work on the rules. The ship- ping industry and IMO want to see class deliver a common high standard. These new rules are the first concrete evidence of the hard work and co-operation which

IACS members have put into meeting those demands." The expected benefits of the new rules are: 1. To offer to the Industry a classifica- tion standard valid for both single hull and double hull vessels allowing fair comparison between these competing designs. 2. To eliminate competition between class societies with regard to structural requirements and design and construc- tion standards. 3. To embrace the intentions of the anticipated IMO requirements for Goal-

Based Standards for new buildings. 4. To ensure that a ship meeting these new standards will be recognized by the

Industry as being safe, robust and fit for the purpose.

A number of innovative requirements will be included in the new rules: 1. For single hull vessels, more accurate formulas for the scantlings of the lower and upper frame brackets, explicit con- sideration for fatigue and new require- ments for scantlings of connecting brackets and hatch end beams. 2. Adoption of net scantlings and values of corrosion additions based on 25 years conventional service life for all designs. 3. New sea loads formulas based on hydrodynamic computations and test model basin results. 4. Closed-form formulas for buckling, allowing complete and accurate deter- mination of the scantlings of the second- ary structure of the ship (plates and ordi- nary stiffeners) at an early stage of the approval process. 5. Explicit computation of the ultimate strength of the hull girder allowing a better assessment of deck and bottom structure in order to avoid breakage of the ship into two parts at sea or in port. 6. New fatigue procedure based on the combined previous experience of all members of the project.

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