An EU-funded program of research, led by BMT Group, is evaluating the effectiveness of ship evacuation models.
Named Safeguard, the project is addressing requirements recently highlighted by the IMO Fire Protection Sub-Committee, which specify the need for more information on additional ways of evacuating a vessel during an emergency.
Currently the IMO MSC.1/Circ. 1238 evacuation policy sets out how long it should take to evacuate passengers and crew from a ship in the safest possible way. These timings should then be tested during four scenarios - two during the day and two during the night. Using data from sea trials, alongside computer simulations of ship evacuations, Safeguard will then investigate whether more scenarios need to be conducted to ensure the safety of crew and passengers.
The total budget for the project is around $5.2 million, with the European partners receiving funding from the European Commission?s "7th Framework Programme", and the Canadian partner funded by the Newfoundland and Labrador Research & Development Corporation and Transport Canada, Marine Safety.
BMT Group is working with several other partners on the project, each with the following roles:
- The Fire Safety Engineering Group (part of the University of Greenwich) is developing fire scenarios and will verify these and the flooding scenarios being developed within the project.
- Bureau Veritas, the safety standards compliance expert, is responsible for providing enhanced scrutiny of data and accident analysis.
- PRINCIPA, the engineering support specialist, is verifying the fire and flooding scenarios.
- Marine stability experts Safety at Sea are developing flooding scenarios and verifying these and the additional fire scenarios.
- Color Line Marine, Royal Caribbean International and Minoan Lines Shipping are providing passenger vessels to use during the project, as well as directly working alongside partners on the sea trials.
Jenny Gyngell, Project Manager at BMT Group, said: "Safeguard is proud to continue the work started in this exciting project, the results of which will lead to modification of the (IMO MSC Circ 1033) though research on realistic passenger response times. We hope that the results of the Safeguard project will again lead improvements in maritime safety and changes to IMO regulations."
