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C M Y CM MY CY CMY K
Contents
Presidents Message 5
SNAMES Council Members 2009/2010 6
Past Presidents of SONAS/SNAMES 7
Report 2008/2009
General Brief & Committee Report 10
Special Report: Singapore Pavilions Led by SNAMES 14
Brief Report on PAAMES 18
SNAMES Main Activities Photo Section 19
Report on Chua Chor Teck Memorial Lecture 2008 & 2009 28
Strategic Papers
Navigating Stormy Waters 32
The Cause of the Present Shipping Market Downturn 36
Innovation in HRM 46
Technical Papers
Marine Emissions: Issues, Challenges and Potential Solutions 50
Structural Health Monitoring of a Skidding Truss Using 58
Vibrating Wire Strain Gauge
New IMO Requirements for Coating of Ballast Water Tanks: 64
Challenges and Solutions
Design and Construction of Icebreakers for Operation 69
in Barents Sea
Keeping Records and Calibration 77
Diesel Pest: A New Disease? 81
Fibre Rope Deployment System 86
Service Experience: MAN B&W Engines 96
Using Mathematical Modelling Technique to Enhance 106
Engine Room Simulation Training and Assessment
Nominal Roll 113
Editors Note 116
Society of Naval
Architects and Marine
Engineers Singapore
31st Annual Journal 2009/2010
Publication Committee
Low Kok Chiang
Anis Hussain
Charles Fernandez
Joan Chua
SNAMES Secretariat Address
205 Henderson Road
#03-01 Henderson Industrial Park
Singapore 159549
Tel: +65 6858 5846
Fax: +65 6725 8474
Email: admin@snames.org.sg
www.snames.org.sg
MICA (P) 127/01/2010
ISSN 2010-099X
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Cover Photo Courtesy of
EMAS Offshore Construction & Production Pte Ltd
Steering Towards Sustainability and Growth
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5
Dear Members
The past year has been an eventful and challenging one
for the maritime industry. Despite a harsh economy, the
maritime and offshore industries remain resilient and well
prepared for an upturn. Ships will always be required to
transport raw materials and export manufactured goods.
Offshore exploration and production remain strong.
Good times or bad, increasingly stringent environmental
and safety standards push the industry to keep relevant,
develop better technologies and advance operations.
Naval architects and marine engineers continue to play
a crucial role in helping the industry meet its myriad
challenges.
With this in mind, you would be pleased to know that
SNAMES had a busy year furthering the professional
development of our members. We organised several
technical talks including the Chua Chor Teck Memorial
Lecture series, industry nights, and participated in
overseas exhibitions and conferences. A broad range
of topics was covered at these touch points, from
marine equipment systems to the global offshore vessel
industry. On the social front, we successfully held the
SNAMES Golf Tournament as well as our Annual Dinner
at the Grand Copthorne Hotel.
As part of our efforts to champion our profession
and our members expertise, we have been active in
various industry committees, working groups and even
Presidents Message
assisted in the delivery of technical subjects in academic
courses. These include the Work, Safety and Health
(Marine Industry) Committee (Shipyards) organised by
the Ministry of Manpower; the Technical Committee
for Bunkering and the Working Group for Mass Flow
Metering for Bunker Delivery (both by SPRING Singapore)
and the SeaAsia 2011 Technical Committee (by Seatrade)
to name a few.
Moving forward, 2010 will be an important and exciting
year for the society. In addition to the numerous
educational talks and social events for members,
SNAMES will host the 4th Pan Asian Association of
Maritime Engineering Societies (PAAMES) Advanced
Maritime Engineering Conference (AMEC). To be held in
December 2010, it marks the frst time that SNAMES will
be organising such a prominent international maritime
conference.
On behalf of the SNAMES Council, I wish to thank you
for the support you have given us in the past year. I hope
you will join the society in embracing the opportunities
that 2010 brings.
Thank you.
Kenneth Kee
President
SNAMES Council 2009/2010
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SNAMES 31st Annual Journal 2009/2010
Council Members 2009/2010
Kenneth Kee
President
David Kinrade
Vice President
Simon Kuik
Honorary Treasurer
Chia Yujin
Honorary Secretary
David Seow
Chairman
Activities Committee
Foo Siang-E
Chairman
Awareness Committee
Low Kok Chiang
Chairman
Anis Altaf Hussain
Chairman
Technology Committee
Au Yeong Kin Ho
Webmaster
Chandru S Rajwani
Council Member
Chen Chin Kwang
Council Member
Yeo Teck Chye
Council Member
Koh Shu Yong
Council Member
Kent Fong
Council Member
Christopher Hoo
Council Member
Joan Chua
Executive Secretary
Secretariat
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SOCIETy OF NAVAL ARCHITECTS SINGAPORE (SONAS)
Year President Vice-President
1973/1974 Mr Tan Kim Chuang Mr Keki R Vesuna
1974/1975 Mr Tan Kim Chuang Mr Ho Ming yeh
Mr Ho Ming yeh Mr Keki R Vesuna
1975/1976 Mr Chua Chor Teck Mr Alan Bragassam
1976/1977 Mr Chua Chor Teck Mr Kalman E Nagy
1979/1980 Mr Chua Chor Teck Mr Tan Kim Chuang
1980/1981 Mr Chung Chee Kit Mr Lim Boon Heng
SOCIETy OF NAVAL ARCHITECTS AND MARINE ENGINEERS SINGAPORE (SNAMES)
Year President Vice-President
1981/1982 Mr Cheng Huang Leng Mr Choo Chiau Beng
1982/1983 Mr Cheng Huang Leng Mr Choo Chiau Beng
1983/1984 Mr Choo Chiau Beng Mr Ronald M Pereira
1984/1985 Mr Ronald M Pereira Mr Tay Kim Hock
1985/1986 Mr Choo Chiau Beng Mr Charlie Foo
1986/1987 Mr Choo Chiau Beng Mr Charlie Foo
1987/1988 Mr Charlie Foo Mr Toh Ho Tay
1988/1989 Mr Toh Ho Tay Mr Teh Kong Leong
1989/1990 Mr Teh Kong Leong Mr Loke Ho yong
1990/1991 Mr Loke Ho yong Mr Dennis Oei
1991/1992 Mr Dennis Oei Mr Goh Choon Chiang
Mr Goh Choon Chiang Mr Wong Kin Hoong
1992/1993 Mr Tan Kim Pong Mr Zafrul Alam
1993/1994 Mr Zafrul Alam Mr Ng Thiam Poh
1994/1995 Mr Ng Thiam Poh Mr Dennis Oei
1995/1996 Mr Dennis Oei Mr Kan Seng Chut
1996/1997 Mr Kan Seng Chut Mr James Tan
1997/1998 Mr James Tan Mr Phua Cheng Tar
1998/1999 Mr Phua Cheng Tar Mr Leslie Low
1999/2000 Mr Leslie Low Mr Wong Kin Hoong
2000/2001 Mr Wong Kin Hoong Mr Leow Ban Tat
2001/2002 Mr Leow Ban Tat Mr ying Hing Leong
2002/2003 Mr ying Hing Leong Mr Tan Chor Hiong
2003/2004 Mr Tan Chor Hiong Mr Dennis Chua
2004/2005 Mr Dennis Chua Mr Ernest Wee
2005/2006 Mr Ernest Wee Mr Fabian Chew
2006/2007 Mr Fabian Chew Mr Goh Boon Guan
2007/2008 Mr Goh Boon Guan Mr Chen Chin Kwang
2008/2009 Mr Chen Chin Kwang Mr Simon Kuik
Past Presidents of SONAS/SNAMES 1973-2009
Workshop Facilities :-
- 12,000 sq ft sheltered
workshop
- 1 x 15 ton crane
- 1 x 10 ton crane
Services :-
- Turnkey projects (Crane and deck
Equipment installation on oshore
vessel.)
- Sea fastening work of oshore mobilization
- Steel renewal inluding SUS 316L & Duplex
- Main & Aux Engine
- Machinery, Insulation work
- Tank Cleaning / Slop disposal
- Pipe renewal including Stainless Steel
Seagull Marine Pte Ltd
33c Benoi Road, Pioneer Lot
Singapore 627787
Tel: 68205525 Fax: 68205535
www.seagullmarine.sg
Report 2008/2009
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Based on the Council Report 2008/2009 presented at
the 37th SNAMES Annual General Meeting (AGM), the
followings feature the main SNAMES developments,
programmes and activities that took place in
2008/2009.
SNAMES VISION
The underpinning vision of the Society of Naval Architects
and Marine Engineers Singapore (SNAMES) is to be
the most admired, respected and responsible society of
people in the maritime industry of Singapore.
SNAMES GENERAL STRATEGy
SNAMES adopts a multi-prong approach as its core
general strategy for growth. They are:
Approach
1 Create a growing SNAMES membership and council
2 Manage SNAMES assets and operating costs
effectively
3 Promote networking events, e.g. Annual Dinner and
Annual Golf Tournament
4 Publish Annual Journal and other relevant
publications
5 Organise technical talks
6 Encourage students participation in SNAMES
selected events
7 Conduct Chua Chor Teck Memorial Lecture
8 Pursue and strengthen relationships with Singapore
and overseas-based organisations
9 Participate in joint activities with other organisations
with maritime visits and goals
10 Better communications through website and Vnet
SNAMES FACTORS OF GROWTH
SNAMES steady growth over the years can be attributed
to an array of factors, namely:
Growth Factors
1 Database membership
2 Junior membership
3 Provision of technical leadership
4 Active social interaction
5 Exciting and relevant public forums
6 Proactive communications
7 Close working relationship with tertiary institutions
8 Good relationships with individual and corporate
sponsors and supporters
9 New programmes developed to cater to emerging
trends and needs of members
10 Effective fees management
SNAMES COUNCIL MEMBERS 2008/2009
SNAMES would like to recognise and appreciate the
Council Members who served in the SNAMES Council
2008/2009:
President Chen Chin Kwang
Vice President Simon Kuik
Honorary Treasurer Kent Fong
Honorary Secretary Chia yujin
Activities Chairman David Seow
Awareness Chairman Foo Siang-E
Publication Chairman Low Kok Chiang
Technology Chairman Anis Hussain
Website Chairman Au yeong Kin Ho
Council Member Dave Kinrade
Council Member Ron Pereira
Council Member Teh Kong Leong
Executive Secretary Joan Chua
Report 2008/2009
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SNAMES EVENTS 2008/2009

A series of events and programmes were organised by the various Committees in 2008/2009. The followings are the
highlight:
Technology Committee
DATE PROGRAMMES SPONSORS
Industry Nites
01 Apr 2008 Ceramic Bearings Tru-Marine
25 Apr 2008 Main Engines MAN
11 Jul 2008 Heavy Fuel Treatment EcoSpec
27 Feb 2009 Voith Schneider Props Voith Turbo
20 Mar 2009 Marine CAD/CAM Sener

Forum Organised By
03 Jul 2008 Developing Singapore as an International Maritime Centre SNAMES, Joint Branch of RINA
Some efforts in the last 20 years What more should we & IMarest, CORE
do together? By David Chin, SMF

Evening Lectures Organised By
29 Feb 2008 Marine Project Management SNAMES, Joint Branch of RINA
& IMarEST, CORE
31 Mar 2008 Management of Maritime Risks through Competent SNAMES, Joint Branch of RINA
People and Dependable Systems & IMarEST, CORE
16 Sep 2008 Do We Need to Build More Drilling Rigs? SNAMES, Joint Branch of RINA
The outlook for the offshore drilling industry & IMarEST, CORE
13 Mar 2009 The Red Hawk Cell Spar: From Research to Contract SNAMES, Joint Branch of RINA
in One year & IMarEST, CORE
16 Mar 2009 Underwater Robots, Learning from Nature, SNAMES, Joint Branch of RINA
Preserving Nature & IMarEST, CORE
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Awareness Committee
PROGRAMMES
RevamptheAwarenessstrategyandprogrammesso
as to promote SNAMES more effectively
CarryoutmajorexercisetoupdatetheMembership
database
Tobettermanagethecollectionprocess
Website Committee
PROGRAMMES
Plans to introduce a more dynamic SNAMES
website
Effortsareunderwaytorevitalisethewebsite
Main goal is to upload the contents by SNAMES
itself instead of being reliant on third-party service
provider
PROGRAMMES
2008 SNAMES Annual/ Technical Journal (30th
Edition) Published
Journal Theme: Propelling Towards the Future of
Marine & Offshore Technology
1000copiesoftheJournaldistributedtoindividual
and corporate members
Over 8 Technical Papers submitted and vetted by
professionals, and published in the Journal
Activities Committee
PROGRAMMES
Annual Dinner at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront
Hotel
- Guest-of-Honour Mr Wong Weng Sun,
President and Chief Executive Offcer of
Sembcorp Marine Ltd
- Over 300 guests attended
SPECIAL MENTION
SNAMES would like to single out a few individuals
who have been outstanding in their contribution to the
advancement of SNAMES objectives. They are Mr Ron
Pereira and Mr Dave Kinrade, who have respectively
been the guiding light in the SNAMES Council. The other
is Ms Joan Chua, SNAMES Secretariat. Her unreserved
dedication and diligence are noteworthy.
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The International Maritime Expo-China (INMEX China),
and Maritime Vietnam are established international
business platforms encompassing all aspects of ship
building, ship repairs, marine services and engineering,
offshore engineering, ports and port development. They
are the market leading events which bring together the
global maritime community under one roof.
Past showings of INMEX China and Maritime Vietnam
have been well received by exhibitors and visitors; many
of whom have given positive feedback, stating that
their overall objectives in exhibiting had exceeded all
expectations.
The Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers
Singapore (SNAMES), with the support of the
International Enterprise Singapore, had led the Singapore
Pavilion in the two most recent shows INMEX China
2008 and Maritime Vietnam 2009.
INMEX China 2008 welcomed 8,345 trade buyers and
visitors from some 15 countries and regions. The event
received an overwhelming response, attracting 462
participating companies from 14 countries. Collectively,
they showcased their most innovative products and
services across the 15,000sqm exhibition space.
At the Maritime Vietnam 2009, which boosted more
interactive concurrent events and stronger international
presence compared to its last edition, the event attracted
3359 highly targeted trade buyers and visitors from some
19 countries and regions. With strong representations
from 7 national pavilions from China, Germany, Korea,
The Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, and the United
Kingdom, Maritime Vietnam is now positioning itself as
the most extensive business platform for networking
opportunities to converge.
INMEX China 2008
Date: 26 28 November 2008 (Wed to Fri)
Show Timings:
Opening Ceremony: (26th Nov) 9AM 10AM
1st Day: 10AM - 5PM
2nd Day: 9AM - 5PM
3rd Day: 9AM - 3PM
Venue:
Guangzhou Jinhan Exhibition Centre
Guangzhou, China
Exhibition Space: 15,000 sqm
Exhibitors:
No. of Participating Companies: 462
No. of Participating Countries: 14
Visitors:
No. of Visitors: 8,393
No. of Countries Represented: 15
Maritime Vietnam 2009
Date: 25 27 February 2009 (Wed to Fri)
Show Timings:
Opening Ceremony: (25 Feb) 9 10AM
1st Day: 10AM - 6PM
2nd Day: 10AM - 6PM
3rd Day: 10AM - 5PM
Venue:
Saigon Exhibition & Convention Centre (SECC)
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Exhibition Space: 5,500 SQM
Exhibitors
No. of Exhibitors: 160
No. of Participating Countries: 15
Visitors
No. of Visitors: 3359
No. of Countries Represented: 19
Special Report
INMEX China and Maritime Vietnam
Exceeded All Expectations
INMEX China 2010 and Maritime Vietnam 2011 will
be no different. With a larger showing and a stronger
international support from leading industry players, the
shows are projected to surpass previous presentations.
Participants who wish to know more about INMEX
China and Maritime Vietnam can contact IIR Exhibitions
Maritime Series of Events at (65) 6319 2668 or visit
www.maritimeshows.com for more information.
POST-SHOW STATISTICS
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INMEX China Maritime Vietnam
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Kormarine Expo, the International Shipbuilding & Marine
Equipment Exhibition, is an important panel for decision
makers from all shipbuilding nations. First held in 1978, it
has become a key event for ship owners, top managers,
engineers and technicans from shipbuilding and marine-
related companies to share technologies and information,
and to make trend-setting decisions.
This year in Busan, Korea, 21-24 October 2009, Kormarine
hosted 1,250 stands and attracted more than 40,000
visitors from 70 countries including Korea, Germany,
The UK, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Italy, China, and
Singapore.
THE SINGAPORE PAVILION
Singapore made its inaugural appearance at Kormarine
2009 with a national pavilion featuring 10 companies,
taking up more than 135 sqm. Supported by the
International Enterprise (IE) Singapore, the Singapore
Pavilion is managed and led by the Society of Naval
Architects and Marine Engineers Singapore (SNAMES).
Established in 1972 as Society of Naval Architects
Singapore (SONAS), it was reconstituted in 1981 to
include Marine Engineers as Members and renamed as
Society of Naval Architects & Marine Engineers Singapore
(SNAMES). SNAMES is a non-proft professional body to
facilitate the exchange of ideas and information on the
practical and scientifc aspects of design, construction,
operation, repairs and maintenance of marine machinery,
structures and vessels and related felds. SNAMES seeks
to work with Singapore companies in the diversifying
maritime industry to advance their interest through
events and trade shows.
Special Report
Singapore Pavilion at Kormarine Expo 2009
Under the Singapore Pavilion, the exhibitors include:
1. CCG Cable Terminations (South East Asia)
Pte Ltd
Wholesale of Electrical and Wiring Accessories,
Marketing, Distribution and Supply of Electrical
Products
2. Comtech Oil Separator and Plate Heat Exchangers
Spares Pte Ltd
Sale and Service of Ship Spare Parts
3. KM Kinley Marketing Pte Ltd
Marine Equipment, Oil and Gas Supplier
4. Nitti (Asia) Pte Ltd
Manufacturer of Nitti Brand Safety Footwear
5. Prosper Marine Pte Ltd
Oily Waste Disposal
6. Skatool Industries Pte Ltd
Manufacturer and Repair of Marine Engine and Ship
Parts. General Wholesale Trade (include general
importers & exporters) Ship Sealing Machine,
Mucking Winches and Various Parts
7. SPX Hydraulic Technologies
U.S. Manufacturer of Power Team Hydraulic Tools
and Equipment
8. Tru-Marine Pte Ltd
Turbocharger Repairs and Parts Supplier
9. Vanguard Composite Engineering Pte Ltd
Manufacturer of Life Saving Appliances, Life Boat,
Rescue Boat and Hook Release System
10. Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers
Singapore
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Kormarine Expo 2009
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INTRODUCTION
The 2
nd
International Standing Committee (ISC) Meeting
of the 4
th
Pan Asian Association for Maritime Engineering
Societies (PAAMES) and Workshop were held at the
Furama Riverfront Hotel, Singapore on 19 October, 2009.
The Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers
Singapore (SNAMES) hosted this event for the PAAMES
member societies.
4
TH
PAAMES/AMEC 2010
SNAMES will host the 4
th
PAAMES/AMEC 2010 in
Singapore on December 6-8, 2010.
AMEC 2008 BEST PAPER AWARDS
Advanced Maritime Engineering Conference (AMEC)
2008 Best Paper Awards were reported at the 2
nd
ISC
Meeting of the 4th PAAMES by Professor Fukasawa,
Chairman of International Programme Committee for
the 3
rd
PAAMES and AMEC 2008 as follows. An awards
ceremony will be held during the 4
th
PAAMES/AMEC
2010.
1. The Analysis and Design of Energy-Saving Propulsors
by Computational Methods by Ching-yeh Hsin, Kwan-
Kai Chang, yue-Hwa Cheng, Chi-Shin Chang
2. Application of CFD-based Simulation to Free Roll
Decay for a Ship including Appendage Effect by
Kwang-Soo Kim, Jin Kim, Il-Ryong Park, and Suak-Ho
Van
3. Study on Control System of Spilled Oil Tracking
Autonomous Buoy System by Hiroki Niou, Hidetaka
Senga, Naomi Kato, Itou Asuka, Muneo yoshie,
Isamu, Fujita, Kazuyuki Igarashi, Etsuro Okuyama
4. Collection of Ultra-Fine Diesel Particulate Matter
(DPM) in Electrostatic Water Spraying Scrubber
by Tran Hong Ha, Hirotsugu Fujita, Osami Nishida,
Harano Wataru
NOTES OF THE 2
ND
ISC MEETING OF THE 4
TH

PAAMES
Review of the Preparation of the 4th PAAMES/AMEC
2010
Prof Choo yoo Sang, Chairman of International Organising
Committee of the 4
th
PAAMES and AMEC 2010,
presented the proposal for the 4
th
PAAMES Conference
and AMEC 2010 and highlighted that the venue for this
event will be at the National University of Singapore. The
date was fxed on December 6-8, 2010.
Mr A.K. Seah was nominated as the next International
Programme Committee (IPC) Chairman and for the
sake of continuity in this demanding committee, Prof.
Fukasawa was selected as Co-Chairman to work with
Mr Seah. Nominations to the IPC for the 4
th
PAAMES &
AMEC 2010 were required to be made by each Society.
Tentatively, the representatives from respective countries
agreed to submit the number of papers they will present
at AMEC 2010 as follows: China (20), Taiwan (at least 5),
Korea (20), Hong Kong (5), Japan(20), Singapore(10).
Theme of the 4
th
PAAMES Forum
It was agreed that the theme of the 4
th
PAAMES
Forum be Recent Developments in Maritime Safety &
Environmental Protection.
Brief Report on PAAMES
2
nd
ISC Meeting of the 4
th
PAAMES
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SNAMES Activities for Year 2009
GoH - Mr Wong Weng Sun,
President and Chief Executive Offcer of Sembcorp Marine Ltd
Guest Speaker - Mr David Chin,
Executive Director of Singapore Maritime Foundation
SNAMES President - Mr Chen Chin Kwang,
SNAMES Council 2008 / 2009
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Annual Dinner 2009
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Annual Dinner 2009
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Annual Dinner 2009
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Annual Golf Tournament 2009
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Annual Golf Tournament 2009
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Chua Chor Teck Memorial Lecture 2009
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Industry Nites
AProvenPlatform
thatConnectsYoutothe
GlobalMaritimeCommunity
C
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CM
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Like any service industry, insurance is heavily dependent
on fnancial and human capital, just as it is for the offshore
and marine industry.
At the 22nd Chua Chor Teck Memorial Lecture (CCTML),
speaker Mr Nick Sansom encouraged his audience
hailing from the offshore and marine industry as well as
academia to consider a career in marine insurance.
With plentiful opportunities and exposure to global
operations, marine insurers play an important role in the
industry.
Speaking at the Lecture entitled Marine Insurance:
Past, Present and Future, Mr Sansom shed light on the
development of the marine insurance industry over the
last thirty years, both in Singapore and worldwide.
He shared that the growing capacity of Singapores hull
market is largely attributed to several factors. Among
these are an increase in the number of ship owners with
presence here as well as government initiatives that
encourage ship operators and marine insurers to make
Singapore their base.
According to Mr Sansom, the next stage of development
is to have Singapore become a wholesale insurance
market for Asian and ultimately global ship owners.
Held in memory of the late Mr Chua Chor Teck, the
Lecture took place at the Singapore Polytechnic
Auditorium on 16 January 2008.
It was organised by the Society of Naval Architects and
Marine Engineers of Singapore.
Apart from supporting the CCTML, a Memorial Fund
also gives out scholarships in keeping with Mr Chuas
dedication to attracting talents to the marine industry.
To read more about the late Mr Chua and the Fund, visit
www.kepcorp.com/CCT_Memorial_Fund_Trustee.
This report article is contributed to the SNAMES Journal
courtesy of Keppel Corporation Ltd Singapore
Mr Nick Sansom is the Senior Vice President and Head
of Marine in Asia of Marsh (S) Pte Ltd. Mr Sansom was
a barrister before working in marine insurance. Having
built a strong grounding in claims and loss prevention,
he moved into underwriting. He is a council member
of the Singapore Shipping Association, a member of
the Ship Insurance and Legal Committee of the Asia
Shipowners Forum and vice-president of the Maritime
Law Association of Singapore.
Report on 22nd Chua Chor Teck Memorial Lecture 2008
Insuring Opportunities
Presented by
Mr Nick Sansom

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The vibrancy of the offshore and marine sector is drawing
more young talents, though more are still needed to drive
the growth and development of the industry.
At the 23rd Chua Chor Teck Memorial Lecture (CCTML),
Professor Choo yoo Sang, Director (Research), Centre
for Offshore Research & Engineering (CORE) of National
University of Singapore (NUS), encouraged his audience,
especially the students, to consider the long-term benefts
of a career in the offshore engineering industry.
Offshore engineers in particular, play an important role
in the industry and enjoy plenty of opportunities and
exposure to global operations.
Speaking on Offshore Engineering Research and
Education, Professor Choo explained, The exploration
and production industry faces long term challenges, with
the talent gap varying from 9,000 to 45,000 personnel
needed.
There will be a high outfow of experienced people
retiring in 10-15 years time, with considerably fewer
young and mid-career people to take over.
The identifed challenge can be seen as opportunities
for Singapore to be directly involved in the education
and training for the next generation of engineers and
technologists of the oil and gas industry.
Professor Choo is the frst person from Asia elected as
President to helm the Institute of Marine Engineering
Science & Technology (IMarEST). He has served in many
scientifc and technical committees as host, Chairman
and Co-Chairman and received numerous awards.
Professor Choo also illustrated some of the projects and
developments at CORE, which have beneftted from
the strong university-industry partnerships in education,
research and development.
These include research on installation engineering, jack-
up foundation issues, very large foating structures and
structural integrity management.
Held in memory of the late Mr Chua Chor Teck, one of
the pioneers of Singapores marine industry, the Lecture
took place at the Singapore Polytechnic Auditorium on 13
January 2009, and was attended by some 370 people.
It was organised by the Society of Naval Architects and
Marine Engineers of Singapore and Keppel Offshore &
Marine.
This report article is contributed to the SNAMES Journal
courtesy of Keppel Corporation Ltd Singapore
Professor Choo Yoo Sang is the Lloyds Register
Educational Trust Chair Professor in National University
of Singapore (NUS) and Director (Research), Centre for
Offshore Research & Engineering (CORE) at (NUS). He
is the frst Asian elected as President, Institute of Marine
Engineering Science & Technology (IMarEST). He has
served in many scientifc and technical committees as
host, Chairman and Co-Chairman and received numerous
awards. He has also served as member of Editorial Board
for Journal of Marine Structures, International Journal
of Ships and Offshore Structures, Journal of Marine
Engineering and Technology and International Journal of
Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering.
Report on 23rd Chua Chor Teck Memorial Lecture 2009
Generation of Young Talents
Presented by
Professor Choo Yoo Sang
Hui Koon EntErprisE (ptE) Ltd

33B Benoi Road Pioneer Lot Singapore 627786
Tel: (65) 6365 0558 Fax: (65) 6365 5023
Email: huikoon@singnet.com.sg
Website: www.huikoon.com.sg
Hui Koon Enterprise (Pte) Ltd is a bizSAFE Certifed Company
Established in singapore, Hui Koon Enterprise pte Ltd provides
consulting services and project management in the marine
industry, specialising in:
MarineVesselAccommodationRepairs
VesselConversiontoCruiseShip
SupplyofMarineAccommodationMaterials:
MarineHardCorePanel
SoftCorePanel
MarineDoors
Floating Floor
EngineeringDrawingforAccommodation
FurnitureFabricationandInstallation
GalleyandLaundryStainlessSteelEquipmentandFurniture
MarineFireRetardantSoftFurnishingandIMOApproved
Carpet&VinylSheet
PolyethyleneandStainlessSteelRubbishBins
Strategic Papers
32
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Navigating Stormy Waters
Thank you for inviting me to give the Third Singapore
Maritime Lecture during Singapores Maritime Week. To
follow Minister-Mentor Lee and the Secretary-General of
the International Maritime Organization in this series is a
privilege, and I am grateful for your interest.
The main issue on everyones mind these days seems to
be the global economic crisis and it is on this topic that
I will centre my remarks. How bad is it? What does it
mean for shipping? And what can we do to address the
challenges facing us?
Some have started to compare the reactions in this crisis
to the well-documented stages of grief: denial, anger,
bargaining, depression, and fnally acceptance. In the
fnancial sector, we saw denial as a reaction to the frst
signs of trouble in mid-2007; and in 2008, it was denial
that prompted references to Asia decoupling. Whilst I
do not wish to be accused of talking the market further
down, I believe a frank assessment of our challenges in
the maritime industry is the only way to avoid prolonging
the state of denial. So I will try to be realistic about
where we are, and hopefully we can move quickly to
the acceptance stage without too much anger and
depression along the way.
So how bad is it? During 2008, fnancial assets around
the world are estimated to have dropped by more than
US$50 trillion according to the Asian Development Bank.
Export and trade volumes have declined dramatically. A
few of the worlds largest fnancial institutions have come
close to bankruptcy. Unemployment rates are still rising,
asset prices are falling, and many homeowners around
the world live in fear of default.
For shipping, the statistics are also stark. Current market
rates for transportation are extremely weak across
THIRD SINGAPORE MARITIME LECTURE
Dr Helmut Sohmen
Chairman, BW Group Limited
Singapore, 21 April 2009
the board below breakeven running costs in almost
all segments. Demand has signifcantly reduced for
transportation of all goods, including energy. And the
supply shock is only just getting started: at the end
of last year, the industry had on order 500 billion US
dollars worth of new ships, or 350 million gross tonnes,
compared to an average orderbook of 100 billion dollars
and 75 million gross tonnes.
In a nutshell, the gap between supply and demand is
growing faster than at any time since the late 1970s,
and we are only at the beginning. Although there are
always differences between one recession and another,
one cannot help but recall the words of economist John
Kenneth Galbraith: The singular feature of the great
crash of 1929 was that the worst continued to worsen.
What looked one day like the end proved on the next day
to have been only the beginning.

How could we have got it so wrong? The answers now
seem obvious. The shipping industry is an essential part
of the global trading system. We got caught up in the
enthusiasm of all market participants. This exuberance
was fuelled by low interest rates, increased consumption,
rising asset prices, and a resultant sense of wealth
leading to additional consumption and investment. At the
same time, risk assessments were showing increasingly
benign results: after all, how do you measure risk when
there are no defaults on recent record, underlying values
are looking stronger and stronger, and one can easily
hedge that risk in the credit derivatives market?
For shipping, this was intensifed by the highly competitive
instincts of the sectors participants, encouraged by
shipyards eager to remain or become major industrial
players, and media focus on individuals growing empires
in just a few years from a standing start. Then despite
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33
consistently rising newbuilding costs, or perhaps because
of them, too many shipowners were fearful of being left
behind. Some now look at the global economic problems
as the cause of the shipping crisis, but the truth is that
even without a global crisis we were building more ships
than we were likely to need.
Every boom has a plausible explanation while it is
happening. In the late 1990s, it was the new paradigm
offered by the internet. In the past fve years, the rationale
has been the industrialisation of China and India, and the
conquering of risk through new fnancial instruments. It
is of course diffcult to swim against the tide of opinion:
cautionary warnings are often taken as being weak-
minded or old-fashioned.
My experience during some 40 years of involvement
in shipping has taught me three basic things about our
industry:
1) Shipping is an integral part of global economic activity.
That of course means we are doing well when world
trade is fourishing, but we cannot avoid the fall-out
when economic growth and trade volumes contract.
2) Good times in shipping rarely last as long as the bad
times. The reason is simple: tonnage supply will
always outrun demand as ships can be built ever
faster. I like to use the analogy of a rowboat: it always
takes much more energy to right an overturned
rowboat than it takes to capsize it in the frst place.
3) Being capital-intensive, shipping is critically dependent
on the health of the fnancial system and the availability
of credit.
Apart from the obvious conclusion that conservatism
in our business is a recipe for long-term survival, these
tenets contain in them some answers to our current
predicament.
Taking them in reverse order, the well-being of the fnancial
sector is of paramount importance to our industry, not to
mention the world at large. Referring back to the stages
of grief, the markets feelings towards the banks has
recently clearly moved from denial to anger. While it has
become almost fashionable to criticise the banks, and to
question the government funds being provided to them,
we should not lose sight of the fact that our economic
well-being depends on a healthy banking system.
Some argue for nationalisation, others for the creation of
so-called bad banks. It is unlikely that any of these will
provide a silver bullet to fx the problem, any more than
the problem of leverage will be solved by creating more
leverage at government level. From the 1980s to the
present day, fnancial sector debt in the United States
rose from 22% to 117%; total debt from 160% to 350%.
Deleveraging is no longer a matter of choice, but a matter
of survival.
A return to good old-fashioned banking means shrinking
balance sheets to the point where the value of loans
more closely matches deposits. This does not happen
overnight.
The good news is that governments seem to have
concluded from Lehman Brothers that we cannot afford
more large bank failures. But as with grief, time is
sometimes the best medicine, and the shipping industry
will meanwhile have to be prepared for credit to be more
scarce than we have been accustomed to. As Warren
Buffett once observed: No matter how great the talent
or effort, some things just take time: you cant produce a
baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.
The second tenet relates to tonnage supply. If oversupply
is aggravating the problem, it is through supply side
changes that we will fnd a resolution. Some of the
reduction in supply will happen naturally as the diffculty
in obtaining fnance will lead to delays or cancellation of
existing orders and a reluctance to order new ships. But
this will also be a slow process of unwinding, especially
if governments step in to underwrite the completion of
frustrated contracts. In other words, not all cancelled
contracts will lead to unbuilt ships.
My recommendation would be for owners of elderly
vessels to seriously consider scrapping earlier rather
than later. Scrap prices are still reasonable and later sales
may only fnd lower prices and crowded scrapyards, and
more stringent rules affecting safe scrapping. As in the
late 1970s and early 1980s, a problem may be that book
values are at a high level, refecting recent prices, and
some companies may therefore be reluctant to come to
a scrapping decision. But this is denial better to take
some bitter medicine today than to fnd oneself requiring
surgery tomorrow.
Turning to newbuilding contracts, I am not an advocate
of defaulting on ones obligations, but there should
34
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be mutual interest in shipping companies, shipyards
and banks working together to reduce the orderbook.
Shipyards may feel pressure to maintain production by
completing vessels, but it might in fact be in their interest
to negotiate to keep the deposits and not build the ships.
Pressing on with contracts now will create two problems
down the road: frstly, building ships which cannot be
paid for is likely to be very costly; and secondly, enlarging
the tonnage overhang will only ensure that shipyards lie
empty in future. Again, what is it to be: sharp pain with a
ready recovery, or prolonged agony?
Other solutions to overcapacity might be in using vessels
as storage; scheduling drydocks for maintenance; having
vessels slow-steam for prolonged periods (thereby also
reducing fuel costs and helping the environment); or
laying up more vessels as is already happening today.
The other tenet I referred to was the fact that shipping
is an integral part of the global economy. In the last few
months, major Asian economies have seen staggering
declines in exports, with Taiwan down 44% towards the
end of 2008, Japan down 50% in February, and China
seeing a drop of 25% recently. The WTO predicts global
trade will shrink by 9% this year.
One of the biggest threats to the shipping industry is that
these fgures will be compounded by the politicisation
of trade and the onset of trade barriers. David Ricardos
theory of comparative advantage still holds true that
societys gains are greatest when we allow goods to be
produced where this can be done most effectively, and
then traded. But the widely dispersed benefts of lower
prices are less apparent than the immediate jolt of a lost
job; and in the face of rising unemployment, politicians
will fnd it hard to withstand popular pressure to protect
domestic products. At the G-20 meeting in November
last year, participants pledged to avoid protectionist
measures; but by the time of the ensuing meeting this
April, no less than 17 of the 20 nations were found
by the World Bank to have implemented measures
whose effect is to restrict trade at the expense of other
countries. Few observers seem confdent that the Doha
Round of trade talks can be resurrected soon.
As an industry, we must lend our voice vigorously to
defending the global trading system which has raised the
quality of life for so many millions around the world.
Protectionism comes in many shapes and sizes, and
trade restrictions are only one example. Another is
government intervention to subsidise failing businesses,
with suggestions now that this might occur in the
shipbuilding industry. This type of protection is also
very damaging as it distorts the normal working of
the market and encourages moral hazard. Bailouts
in the fnancial sector may have been necessary to
prevent collateral damage; but as the US government
has come to realise with General Motors, one cannot
support a failing business forever, even in the name of
job preservation. Subsidising shipyards may appear
to work for a short while, but one cannot fll emptying
berths with government money indefnitely. Last month,
the Economist published an article titled: A deluge of
new ships pours into a drowning industry. The articles
concluding sentence: Rather than a bail-out, what the
industry really needs is for some participants to sink.
A third form of protectionism is appearing for key
resources like energy, on which the maritime sector
depends. Recent price history and expected future
shortages are driving some nations to become more
insular in their thinking. Our ability to fuel the global
economy in an effective and environmentally friendly way
depends on being able to deploy the best technology
from around the world. Pushing heavily for local content
and squeezing out foreign companies may again sound
good politically, but will undermine global economic
success in the longer run.
Singapore, which in recent years has developed into an
outward looking fnancial centre, a signifcant maritime
hub and a sizeable trading post, will in many ways be
seen as an example of what can be achieved in hard
times by an enlightened government with political clout.
Of course, as recent fgures published have shown,
Singapore is quite exposed to the effects of the current
downturn. With a small domestic market, Singapore
is particularly dependent on international trade. Given
its singular reputation as a successful Asian economy,
and a country which thereby punches above its weight,
Singapore should raise its voice against protectionist
instincts wherever it can.
I have referred to free markets, reduced tonnage supply,
and a stable credit system as being on the achievable
path to recovery for the maritime industry. Governments
have more power than the participants in the maritime
industry to infuence free trade and fnancial markets,
but we can do something about tonnage supply. Having
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35
created this particular problem as an industry, we should
now act forcefully to address it.
My fnal comment is that while we fght the fres in front
of us, we must also try to raise our heads to look at the
more distant horizon. I see in the future a world where
environmental consciousness reaches new heights,
demanding ships that are fuel-effcient and kinder to
the atmosphere. I foresee that the quest for scarce
energy resources leads us deeper into the maritime
environment in the search for oil and gas. Realignment
of the geopolitical order will ensure that ships continue
to play a vital role in connecting new trading partners.
In a less benign sense, it will create new threats to the
safe passage of vessels on account of war, piracy, and
militancy. Regulation will continue to multiply, while
technological advances may bring an automated form
of transparency, when the movement and performance
of ships can be monitored on a continuous basis just as
shore-based facilities are today. Those who are still able
to invest in solutions to these issues will be well placed
to face the future.
Returning to the here and now, I am reminded of a Woody
Allen quote: More than any other time in history, mankind
faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter
hopelessness, the other to total extinction. Let us pray
that we have the wisdom to choose correctly. I am not
so gloomy - despite all the negative signs, there are some
grounds for optimism. Government action to stimulate
the economy is being taken with unprecedented scale
and speed. The rise of the middle class in developing
nations like India, China, or Brazil is a secular trend that
will continue. The demand for energy and maritime
expertise will go on for a long time to come. The key
question is how quickly we can put ourselves back on
the path of recovery, and the answer lies in moving from
denial to acceptance and action. I hope that we all have
the courage to do so.
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CONTENTS
1.0 Introduction
1.1 The Start of the Present Shipping Cycle
1.2 The peaking of the present shipping cycle
2.0 Shipping Markets Shipping Industry/
Shipping Economics
2.1 Shipping Cycles
2.2 Era of Financial Innovation
2.3 How the Financial Nightmare Spread Its
Horror into the shipping world?
2.4 Era of Chinas Ascension to WTO and
Chinas Impact on Shipping
3.0 Shipping as Capital Investment for Growth
4.0 Financial Crisis Impact on Container Shipping
Trade
5.0 Report on Container Shipping Trade
6.0 Container Shipping Future / Challenges
6.1 Capacity in Terms of Supply and Demand
6.2 Schumpeters Innovation Shift and
Environmental Policy Shift
7.0 Conclusion
The views are the personal views of the author.
1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 The Start of the Present Shipping Cycle
As an aftermath effect of the stock market collapse
from dot-com and the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks,
The Cause of the Present Shipping Market
Downturn with Particular Emphasis on the
Container Shipping Economic Cycle
Thong Sew Kait
Director of Newbuildings and DryDocking,
Technical Services Dept, APL
the Federal Reserve (Fed) lowered the interest rate
(Chart 1) to combat the perceived threat of an in-coming
defation. The stimulus and the competitive behaviour
led to increasing rates of globalization and the fourishing
of international trade. Shipping, as the transportation
facilitator of trade, grew substantially, with growth
exceeding the norms of typical past shipping rates of
growth.
Chart 1
Source: Federal Reserve
Table 1
Source: Global Economics Research
Chart 2
Source: Stockcharts.com
Page 2 of 18

Chart 1
Source: Federal Reserve

Year 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Percent change at annual rate:
Gross domestic product: 4.4 4.8 4.1 1.1 1.8 2.5 3.6 3.1 2.7 2.1 .4

Table 1
Source: Global Economics Research

Chart 2
Source: Stockcharts.com

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37
1.2 The Peaking of the Present Shipping Cycle
In the year 2004, the Fed started to reverse its low
interest policy in a series of small cautious steps. The
interest rate reversal policy eventually led to a sudden
drop in the global trade with the tightening in trade credit.
Increased risk aversion led to the near drying up of trade
fnance through the increased cost of trade fnancing. The
scene was thus set for a dramatic change in the shipping
environment.
Chart 3
Source: Dryship Inc
The near collapse in international trade, created the right
recipe for the shipping market down cycle, leading to a
downwards decline in the shipping market as shown in
the Baltic Dry Index chart (Chart 3) and Howe Robinson
Containership indices (Chart 4). This dramatic cyclical
behaviour is prevalent in shipping cycles.
Chart 4
Source: Howe Robinson Research
2.0 SHIPPING MARKETS SHIPPING
INDUSTRy/ SHIPPING ECONOMICS
There are different segments within the shipping industry;
namely; bulk carriers for the dry trade (commodity),
tankers for the wet trade (oil / processed oil / chemicals),
container ships for semi-fnished or manufactured goods
and other specialist segments. Within each shipping
industry segment, there are different markets determining
the supply or availability of shipping capacity.
The shipping freight market is the driving force towards
the demand and supply balance in the availability of
ships. The demand and supply capacity balance is
determined by three(3) supporting markets; namely, the
Sale and Purchase market, the Shipbuilding market and
the Demolition market. Short term demand and supply
are met by pricing variations within the Sale and Purchase
market whilst longer term replacement capacity and
natural obsolescence are met via the Shipbuilding and
Demolition market. The very international nature of
the shipping business, shipping fnance, assets and its
workforce means that the industry is globally competitive
and is a near perfect competition model. This means that
it is one of the better models for the study of economic
cycles.
2.1 Shipping Cycles
The shipping market is synonymous with cycles. Cycles
have literally, been the lifestyle as their beginning starts
from the freight market. Each trade, whether it is a time
charter or voyage charter begins with bids. Each bid over
a period of time varies, depending on competitive market
conditions as owners seek to maximize their potential
proft whilst charterers seek to minimize the freight rates.
Each transaction will result in bid variations and such
variations, will tend to either go up or down depending
on the availability of tonnage or cargo.
Over time, these variations can be differentiated into
seasonal or annual cycles, short business cycles and long
wave cycles (Kondratieff, Schumpeter).
The boom phase in 2006 followed shortly after the
recovery phase in 2004 as ship owners or participants
within the shipping trade took advantage of the potential
proftable environment, to maximize returns (Chart 3 /
Chart 4 mapped onto Chart 2). The barriers to entry
in newbuildings were near negligible, other than pure
38
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conviction and fnancial means. Each imbalance in
tonnage stirs up the freight market, and intense activity
within the Sale and Purchase marketplace. Eventually,
the market activity will lead to the newbuildings market.
The newbuildings market is fraught with uncertainty as
there is a time lag of two or more years from contract
to the ships delivery, as can be seen from the recent
2007~8 newbuildings contracts. The risk in newbuildings
has intensifed greatly, especially in a prolonged economic
bull market with the economic boom cycle peaking
before the ships delivery or just post delivery. For the
demolition market, the economic boom time is in its
consolidation phase and with a downturn, the demolition
industry swings into an upturn.
The inevitability of the shipping business is that when the
freight market is stirred, the Sale and Purchase market
is activated. But before long, the newbuildings market
also moves, with speculators swamping and booking up
the slots. When the real operators start moving, the
various marketplaces would have been over-stimulated.
Each marketplace has already been on an elevated phase
and when an economic event pervades the system, a
swift downturn will start to infect the system. The freight
market goes into reverse, followed by the Sale and
Purchase market, then, the Newbuildings market with
activity starting to reappear in the demolition market.
The lagging effect of the physical supply-demand market
creates an overhang of surpluses and defcits in tonnages
in the boom and bust environment. The severity and
time span between each boom and bust is dependent
on a number of factors;
(a) Economic recovery process or political events
(b) The rate of supply and demand balance of
tonnages
(c) The speed of shipyards consolidation (excess
capacity)
Unlike past downturns, this downturn affects the various
shipping sectors from bulker, tanker and container
shipping, all at the same time. This unprecedented
synchronization of all the shipping markets would clearly
affect the shipping industry badly, over the next few
years.
2.2 Era of Financial Innovation
The frst decade of the 21st century has been marked
by an era of fnancial innovation. The era of fnancial
innovation has brought the perceived wealth concept
into the fnancial world and leveraging as the way to
expand.
The leveraged system has in fact, contributed to a
substantial and fast growth in the shipping industry.
Financial innovation encouraged the outsourcing of
manufacturing to emerging economies especially China.
The perceived wealth effect drives the consumption
habits in the developed nations and manufacturing
outsourcing grows at a rapid pace. As the exports from
China grew, demand growth for container ships grew
in double digit growth and supply lagged behind the
demand growth (Chart 11). The frst container shipping
freight market spurt was at the end of 2003 but slackened
in mid 2005 based on past boom shipping cycle growth.
However, by 2007 the realization that a down cycle did not
materialise, and with Chinas hosting of the Olympics, the
boom cycle was lengthened. It was during this period of
perceived euphoria, that the newbuildings market grew
rapidly with green feld yards spurting up in Korea and
China.
The foundation for overcapacity in shipbuilding capacity
was thus laid and the newbuildings market is set for a
long downturn and depressed newbuilding prices over
the next few years.

2.3 How the Financial Nightmare Spread Its Horror
into the Shipping World?
There are two likely scenarios which are being played
out; namely; the freight market and the fnancial market
for fnancing a long term asset with declining value. As in
chart 4 and/or chart 5, depending on charter arrangements
eg time or voyage charter, declining freight rate leads to
reducing revenue, consequently, lowering asset value. It
is a double spiral down, with credit tightening that makes
the decreasing cash fow more diffcult to balance in a
depressing environment.
As can be seen from the cycle of market emotions (Chart
6), the market players mass psychological behaviour
in the stock market reminds us of our fraility in human
behaviour regarding anticipation of long-term events or
decisions about future events with capital expenditure
projects. It reminds us of the diffculty for long term
projections and scanning of an event which could disrupt
our process, and in this case, shipping, so dramatically.
This will result in positive rent being earned during
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39
boom and negative rent during downturn when the
ships supply overshoot the mark. The most crucial factor
is the rate or velocity of change in the supply/demand
equation.
Chart 5
Source: Container Market Annual Review and Forecast 2009/10,
Drewy Publishing
Shipping was euphoric with bountiful profts in the
booming years from 2003 to 2008. It was this euphoric
positive feeling of potential profts and future fnancial
projection of positive growth that capital intensive
assets like ships were contracted to yards by shipping
companies. With this innovative fnancial climate, cheap
fnancing through innovative fnancing arrangement also
encourage capacity growth too.
Chart 6
Source: Catalano, Vinny
2.4 Era of Chinas Ascension to WTO and Chinas
Impact on Shipping
On 11th November, 2001 China joined WTO and
accelerated the pace of trade integration into the global
trade. In fact, the exports from Asia grew from some
35% to 45% whilst internal consumption decreased
(Chart 7). From Table 2, it is noted that America is the
fnal destination for some 20% of the goods from Japan
and China. It was during this era, after Chinas ascension,
that globalization of manufacturing accelerated. With
restructuring during the Asian fnancial crisis, the fnal
assembling was relocated to China. Intermediate
Chart 7
Source: Roach, Stephen S.
Table 2
Source: Roach, Stephen S.
40
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manufacturing was retained within SE Asia and container
shipping benefted through growth in intra-Asian shipping
as well as export growth to developed nations. In 2007,
growth rates in the Pearl Delta basin for container
terminals handling rates as well as exports growth were
in excess of 20%. In later years, this phenomenon was
repeated in the Shanghai region. These explosive growth
rates in the exports of manufactured goods earned China
the title of manufacturing centre of the world. With
such explosive growth, container shipping tonnage lagged
behind demand tonnage, and freight grew rapidly (Chart
5). A number of factors, as detailed above, including ship
regulatory rules started to impact shipping, creating an
environment of tonnage upgrading in the face of such
environmental change eg double hull rules for oil tankers,
and common structural rules (CSR) rules for bulk carriers.
These factors, including growth, created an exceptional
demand for ships as well as shipyards. (Chart 8) The
congruence of factors had created an unprecedented
peaking in growth rates for all seaborne trade.
Chart 8
Source: Clarkson Research Services
Just recently, the shipping downturn has been in a very
painful adjustment phase of a sharp downward shift
in cargo movement. Drastic action by world leaders
appears to have arrested the slide. Trade credit and trade
appears to have weathered the downturn a little bit better
now, staging a slow, long road towards recovery.
3.0 SHIPPING AS CAPITAL INVESTMENT

FOR GROWTH
Chart 9
Source: Container Intelligence Monthly
Traditionally, ship operators had been growing
conservatively and lately, in view of the fast pace of
growth, liner operators had been growing with charter-
in tonnages. This refect the structure of ownership
in shipping risk especially when shipping profts are
used to cover the down period, whilst still reaping in a
reasonable return over the span of the ship. It will be
interesting to see the likely outcome of the composition
of this relationship as the crisis play out. Will this be
a symbiotic or parasitic relationship whereby one party
support the other or will it stress the relationship to a
point of devouring the host?
Let us look at a typical 8000 TEU ship, whose price
ranged from US$80 million in 2003 to US$ 120 million
in 2008.
Chart 10
From Chart 10, the unit fuel price fluctuation has
tremendously stressed the fnances of container shipping
companies. The frantic rate of rise in fuel price has misled
liner companies in their investment decisions. With the
Container Ship's Cost Variation

0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Year
C
o
s
t

$

(
m
i
l
l
i
o
n
,

$
)
New build Price (million)
Fuel Cost ($)
|
41
downturn, the containers annual volume growth has
collapsed and its recovery depends very much on the
world economic recovery.

For a start, investment decisions are taken in earnest
as such investment is capital intensive. It could easily
sap the fnancial strength of any shipping company in a
downturn. The relative ease with which fuel prices rise,
the relative hype of infuence in investment decisions,
and presently, environmental considerations would
change the present sphere of economic consideration
towards a supercharged feet renewal in the not too
distance future.
Table 3: Relative Percentage Variation in Fuel and Charter
contribution to voyage cost
It can be seen from Table 3 that the relative merits have
shifted to emphasize the importance of scale economy
in the competitive sphere of container shipping such that
the 8100 TEU vessels delivered even more savings in
fuel, based on 2009 fuel price.
Table 4: Global Supply / Demand Balance
Source : Clarkson Research Services
The boom in shipbuilding has followed the change in
government policies especially with respect to the low
interest rate stimulus policy by Fed and a realization
of under building in 2004 as an after-thought of the
post 2003 Asian Currency Crisis. There was a sudden
spurt in newbuildings whilst waiting for the economic
conditions to improve. By then, the economic conditions
of developed countries with GDP growth of 2 to 3 plus %
spurred the container shipping feet growth by a multiplier
effect to double digit growth. The golden era of shipping

was thus, established and with it, the lesson of shipping
cycles or the boom-bust cycles was forgotten. Fear and
denial were replaced by hope and relief. The mood further
changed to excitement and thrill as contractual prices in
newbuildings rose. Speculation moved into newbuildings
and the growth of green felds or fy-by night shipyards
resulted in exceptional capacity growth in feets across all
ships types- an period in which overcapacity will sink the
shipping market. This appears to be an unprecedented
synchronization of all shipping markets.
4.0 FINANCIAL CRISIS IMPACT ON
CONTAINER SHIPPING TRADE
Chart 11
By 3rd quarter 2008, the full implication of the fnancial
crises started to impact on the container shipping
charter rates as well as 2nd hand vessels prices (Chart
5). Container ship supply growth outstripped demand
growth while uncertainty gripped the fnancial industry.
Chart 12
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A dread befell the container shipping industry as it focused
on the incoming supply in the near future. The entry of
many, very large container ships (VLCS > 8000 TEU) will
affect the dynamics of the container shipping industry. It
will be interesting to observe how the container shipping
industry tries to absorb such capacity and how the global
container freight market share will be re-distributed.
Fear gripped the financial industry and so too, the
container shipping industry. By 1st quarter 2009,
fear spread across the Atlantic to Europe, capacity
management started in earnest with shipping operators,
adopting or considering various strategies eg.:
(a) Layup
(b) Demolition
(c) Cancellation
(d) Postponement of delivery
The ramifcation of the downturn, from fnancial to
container shipping industry is just the beginning. VLCS are
in a closed market with long tenure relationships whilst,
smaller container ships, about 2500 TEU and below, are
speculative with short term charters. Liner companies
started to reduce capacity and reduce speed in earnest to
contain cost. Smaller or shorter time chartered vessels
were released as their chartered period ended. Ships
were laid up and demolition of older vessels started in
earnest. The demolition industry started to wake up from
its slumber as the fnancial industry woes intensifed.
Asian operators started to adopt one or more of the
above policies to manage their capacity whilst European
operators eg Maersk; started to adopt a more involved
policy of varied speed management to manage capacity
/ utilization and minimize layup. Their relative sizes or
ships capacities, may be the key in the differentiated
approach towards capacity management.
5.0 REPORT ON CONTAINER SHIPPING
TRADE
5.1 Liner Shipping Companies Results
By 2nd half of 2009, container shipping trade is mired
with losses.
Table 5: Proft and Loss Report of Liner Companies
Page 13 of 18
5.1 Liner Shipping Companies Results

By 2
nd
half of 2009, container shipping trade is mired with losses.

Maersk Evergreen
Hapaq
Lloyd OOCL
Losses Million (US$) 961 143.2 618 224
Revenue Million (US$) 9800 1193.939 3184 2053
9.81% 11.99% 19% 11%
Freight drop 30% 39% 19.80%

Table 4:

Freight generally fell and container shipping lines experienced losses which ranged
from between10% to 20%. Without rate restoration, container shipping is bound to stop
operating. Policies adopted by Maersk, limited their losses, whose base in on multi-trade
using VLCS. Notably, MSC and CGM were without layup vessels, getting rid of their
old tonnages through demolition and letting ships go when their time charter ended.

Container shipping lines also had to adopt aggressive cost management on fuel as well as
speed reduction program, to curb their astonishing fuel bill of 38% (5500 TEU) and
34%(8100 TEU) contribution to voyage cost. (Table 2). The VLCS generally adopted a 9
weeks loop whilst 5500 TEUs ships adopted 8 weeks for FE-Europe Service during boom
time whilst now, it has slipped into 10/11 weeks or 9 weeks loop respectively. Some
even embarked on a cape route for the back haul leg. The variable speed programme for
westbound and eastbound, was curtailed by the sudden spurt of fuel cost from Feb 2009
to US 440 / mt.

With trade reduction, lines withdrew services and consolidated their services so as to
maintain the ships utilization. European shipping lines meanwhile appeared to have
adopted a sunk cost concept on their ships. They maintained their services westbound
(head haul) while it slow steamed, on its backhaul.

Freight generally fell and container shipping lines
experienced losses which ranged from between 10%
to 20%. Without rate restoration, container shipping is
bound to stop operating. Policies adopted by Maersk,
limited their losses, whose base is on multi-trade
using VLCS. Notably, MSC and CGM were without
layup vessels, getting rid of their old tonnages through
demolition and letting ships go when their time charter
ended.
Container shipping lines also had to adopt aggressive
cost management on fuel as well as speed reduction
program, to curb their astonishing fuel bill of 38% (5500
TEU) and 34% (8100 TEU) contribution to voyage cost.
(Table 3). The VLCS generally adopted a 9 weeks loop
whilst 5500 TEUs ships adopted 8 weeks for FE-Europe
Service during boom time whilst now, it has slipped
into 10/11 weeks or 9 weeks loop respectively. Some
even embarked on a cape route for the back haul leg.
The variable speed programme for westbound and
eastbound, was curtailed by the sudden spurt of fuel
cost from Feb 2009 to US 440 / mt.
With trade reduction, lines withdrew services and
consolidated their services so as to maintain the ships
utilization. European shipping lines meanwhile appeared
to have adopted a sunk cost concept on their ships.
They maintained their services westbound (head haul)
while it slow steamed, on its backhaul.
Chart 13 Assumption: Boom time Scheduling but Fuel at US$440/mt
FEU cost (Voyage cost basis)

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43
The sunk cost has its merit in that capital cost is
already foregone whilst fuel cost and customers loyalty
is maintained in the head haul whilst back haul fuel saving
could be effected. This is a function of variability in fuel-
speed cost management and customers freight ratio
between head and back haul.
Asian operators appear to have cut some services and
hence, still maintain their utilization rate. The only issue
is that freight is below cost.
With the sunk cost concept, assuming VLCS ships
utilization drops some 80% (assuming a general trade
reduction of 20%), the advantage of economy of scale
and maintaining the fleet running would be a cost
disadvantage. Inevitably, these VLCS operators would
have to improve their utilization factor via predatory pricing
and thus, take advantage of their scale advantage. As can
be seen in Chart 13, at 80% utilization, the relative cost
between a 5500 TEU and 80% (8100 TEU) would result
in a relative cost disadvantage to an 8100 TEU ship.
With a declined or reduced volume of containers shipped,
the 5500 TEU load utilization factor could be maintained
at a high level with service cut, but for VLCS, its service
disruption is more convoluted and its network challenges
greater, if it also adopts the same tactical move. The
VLCS operators would also move towards predatory
pricing in expanding their market share.
6.0 CONTAINER SHIPPING FUTURE /
CHALLENGES
6.1 Capacity in Terms of Supply and Demand
(a) Supply Management
This is one of the greatest concerns between all liner
operators but unlike governments, whose uncertainty is
one of its citizen and economy. For the liner operators, the
backstop is bankruptcy. Boom and burst cycles always
present consolidation opportunities through merger and
acquisition (M&A) for liner companies. The history of
liner companies has been beset with consolidation.
Maersk announced that it would be raising capital for
acquisition in September, 2009. Neptune Orient Lines
launched a right issue in June 2009.
Other strategic options that will open opportunities
for shipping companies are fre sale acquisition in
ships. The fnancing of ships, ie the sourcing of credit is
becoming more diffcult day by day. The value of ships
has practically become a mathematical model market
as evident through the release of the Hamburg Ship
Evaluation Standard in February, 2009. The anaemic
shipbuilding market is further distressed by the news of
bickering between CGM CMA and Korea Export Import
Bank, ships not being delivered and moored alongside
the shipyards eg Wen Chong shipyard, newbuilding
shipyards turning towards dry-docking activities as well
as CSAV re-confguring their newbuildings contract from
four, 12500 TEUs container ships to fve, 8500 TEUs
container ships.

The above strategic options do not directly address
capacity. They result in opportunities and the death
of companies/consolidation, resulting in further
rationalization of resources, in short, reduced capacity
but higher utilization.
The most direct impact would be demolition and slippages
through cancellation and postponement. Increased
demolition, is only a small dent to overall capacity as
the older ships are generally small. That leaves us, with
cancellation and postponement as the last option towards
sanity in management of supply.
Layup is not the real solution, but a temporal approach
toward deferment of capacity in service.
(b) Demand Management
Demand management is dependent on growth in
developed countries especially America and Europe for
container shipping. The confdence in the consumer
market during the stimulus and post-stimulus recovery
behaviour would be a very defning moment in a credit
enhanced consumer behaviour environment for the
future. The slippage in consumer behaviour would
prolong the demand growth for consumer goods and this
may not be borne well with container shipping tonnages.
(See Chart 7).
Export led economies would have to grow their own
base in consumerism though domestic consumption.
Presently, Chinas stimulus to grow domestic
consumption as well as Asian economies, will add to
their countries GDPs growth but will not contribute too
much to the global container trade.
These stimulus policies will defnitely be good for bulk
44
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and oil trade but their contribution is rather limited
towards intra-Asian container trade a growth in the
regional trade.
These small steps, though small, in terms of container
shipping may, through the bulk and oil trade, revive
the economies of commodity trade. Through it, the
opportunities in new market could be the next area of
growth.
6.2 Schumpeters Innovation Shift and
Environmental Policy Shift
Schumpeters concept of creative destruction and the rise
of innovation is aptly in place especially with challenges
in the environmental front. The traditional approach in
supply-demand balance for container shipping is mired
with uncertainty and inherently stuck in a multi-year
compression in the US consumerism.
Innovation initiatives with carbon trading implication,
could result in the rise of various engineering innovation
strategies in fuel saving and environment, for example,
fuel effciency enhancement technologies, hull friction
reduction strategies like silicon paint and air bubble
technology and air pollution strategies like scrubbing
technologies. These are incremental technological shifts
which could infuence the competitive sphere.
As the shipping industry is not part of the technological
innovation setup, early adopters do not necessary gain
competitive advantage over their competitors except
on a short run basis and which, at times, can go terribly
wrong eg US lines with speed reduction in the 80s.
The present driver towards environmental changes
is through regulatory change and the search towards
greener fuel. Liner companies will search out cheaper
alternatives or engineering solutions which will result in
a shift in technological response. The ups and downs
in the shipping industry is likened to the years when
shipping also faced technological challenges as steam
ships were outdated by slow speed diesel engines
because of economics.
7.0 CONCLUSION
There is great change in store over this period of
challenge in environmental shift, fnancial stress and
changing developed nation consumerism for container
shipping. These changes might create a sea change in
container shipping, segmenting the liner companies to
hub and spoke shipping and direct shipping operators.
These changes could also lay the foundation stone
towards terminals hub status, the fexibility of labour and
government actions in a competitive global environment
to promote and support the hub status.
There might be a pause in the pursuit of economy of
scale. A likely sea change towards slow steaming might
evolve with the industry facing head winds from the
environmental front. The industry might adopt slow
steaming as the new paradigm for the future in the face
of defationary effects in the developed countries over
the next few years. Crude oil price (scarce or limited
resources) might trend upwards or remain constant at
the present level. Its pricing might entrench container
shipping into slow steaming, an era that will reshape
economic challenge to the container ships assets under
the auspices of the green movement.
This is a time for refection. A time to review container
shipping as niche or direct shipping or a common
carrier basis, as a refection to an earlier and pre-defned
segmentation in tanker shipping of VLCCs, suezmax and
aframax. A time to refect on the changes brought about
with post-new panama canal operation, a time in which
the world is truly linked by the VLCS for round the world
service and Suez / new-Panama canal competing for
canal tolls.
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45
REFERENCES
1. Global Economics Research, 2009. United States
Interest Rate
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/Economics/
Interest-Rate.aspx?Symbol=USD (Accessed Sept
2009)
2. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2009. Gross Domestic
Product
http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/gdp/
gdpnewsrelease.htm (Accessed Sept 2009)
3. Stockcharts.com, 2009. Dow Jones Industrial
Average
http://stockcharts.com/charts/historical/djia2000.
html (Accessed August 2009)
4. yann Duval, Wei Liu, (2009). The global fnancial
crisis:A wake-up call for trade finance capacity
building in emerging Asia
http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/3667
(Accessed Sept 2009)
5. Dryship Inc, 2009. Baltic Index Chart
ht tp: / / www.dr yshi ps.com/ pages/ repor t. asp
6. Howe Robinson Shipbrokers, 2009. Containership
4th quarter and annual review 2008.
7. Stopford, Martin (1997). Maritime Economics,3rd
Edition, Routledge (2009)
8. Catalano, Vinny (2008). A Look at the Cycle of Market
Emotion
http://seekingalpha.com/article/68412-a-look-at-the-
cycle-of-market-emotions (Accessed Sept 2009)
9. Roach, Stephen S. (2007). A Subprime Outlook for
the Global Economy
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article2537.html
10. World Ship Monitor, volume 16, No 7 Clarkson
Research Services Ltd.
11. Clarkson Research Services Ltd, 2009. Container
Intelligence Monthly, Vol 11, No 7 (July 2009)
12. AXSMarine (2009). Alphaliner Weekly Newletter,
Volume 2009, Issue 33
Thong Sew Kait is a Naval Architect and has been
involved in Newbuildings supervision from early eighties.
His experience spans from tankers to container ships and
culturally adapted to the Asian shipbuilding countries like
Japan, Korea and China. He experienced shipbuilding
economic cycles while he was in Korea during supervision
as well as when he is back in APL.
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INTRODUCTION
Shiptek 2009 focuses on innovation. As we all know,
necessity is the mother of invention, and there are many
drivers of innovation, including:
Reducing costs
Increasing (fuel) effciency
Saving the environment
Saving lives
Creating value (better products/services/etc)
But nothing will happen without people. We need
people to think of and develop new ideas; and people to
implement them; and people to appreciate the resulting
benefts. Hence the need to take a good hard look at
manpower.
This presentation will look at some ideas (something
old; something new) regarding manpower in the marine
industry. But before that, we should take a look at where
we are at present; at what is good and what is not so
good about current human resource management.
THE GOOD
Compared to 40, 30 or 20 years ago, we certainly have
better facilities for training, educating, and generally for
developing our people. Although in some parts of the
world, things are still fairly backward; on the whole, we
have better and more conducive teaching facilities, and
more advanced equipment.
We have better qualifed teachers, at least in terms of
having formal qualifcations. Quality systems in many
organizations and institutions ensure that qualifying
standards are set and met. In many cases, teachers also
go through training in pedagogy.
Innovation in HRM The Good, The Bad, and
Some Food For Thought
Paper presented at Shiptek 2009, SingExpo, 7 May 2009
Teh Kong Leong
Executive Director, SMF
In many places, we have elaborate quality systems
in place to ensure that standards are met and proper
procedures followed, whether it is in respect of coverage
of syllabus, how training is to be conducted, or how
assessments are to be carried out.
We have a whole lot more oversight exercised within
the industry, by fag states, port states, charterers,
insurers/P&I, and even customers. There are so many
inspectors and inspections and audits. And we certainly
have a lot more regulation, whether its from the IMO, or
classifcation, or industry, with wider coverage including
safety, environmental protection and security.
There is a lot more use of advanced technology, in the
design of ships and structures, in simulation, in operations,
in building and construction, and in communications; and,
of course, in teaching.
Fortunately, in spite of all the advances, we still have
hunger in the world. In many parts of the world, we
still have real hunger where people see a position in the
marine industry as a stepping stone to a better life. Even
in the more affuent parts, there still are those who aspire
to go to sea or to join other parts of the industry.
THE BAD
Unfortunately, we continue to have more accidents,
incidents, breakdowns, and higher insurance claims.
And, lo and behold, the primary cause of these is
still the human factor.
One of the factors contributing to this unfortunate trend
is the severe shortage of professionals and qualifed
people at many levels, ashore as well as afoat. This has
been more keenly felt in the recent boom years. The
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47
wonderful thing about the industry is that, despite the
acute shortage (and one very clear sign was the absence
of seafarers looking for jobs at Lunetta Park in Manila),
there were hardly any reported cases of ships being
stranded because of shortage of seafarers. One can just
imagine phantom seafarers or phantom certifcates of
competency foating around.
Seafaring has traditionally been seen as casual
employment, with seafarers signing on and off ships, and
going from company to company. There have, of course
been exceptions, particularly among the more established
and well-known companies, where seafarers tend to
stay on a longer term basis. Unfortunately, the trend has
been towards third-party ship and crew management,
and fewer and fewer shipowners managing their own
ships and recruiting and training their own seafarers.
Furthermore, many of the famous old names in shipping
have disappeared. Under the circumstances, it is
inevitable that short term thinking becomes the norm,
with seafarers and managers just thinking about getting
the ships moving from place to place, and not being
concerned about the longer term interests of the owners.
It gets even worse in a crew-shortage situation, with
seafarers not even having to be concerned about their
performance or reputation.
When seafarers (and increasingly, even those ashore) are
treated as casual labour, we cannot expect any sense of
loyalty. Where loyalty does not exist, how can there be
any trust? And without trust, how can any organization
survive?
Real knowledge comes from experience. As a simple
example, how does a child learn about the dangers of fre
without getting burned? We come into this world with
practically nothing, and learn through exploring the world.
Unfortunately, experience does not seem to be widely
valued. We keep on hearing about retrenchment of older
workers (even people in their 30s are considered old),
and employers favouring younger ones. So what we are
doing is removing the real knowledge and experience and
getting younger people to make (the same) mistakes and
learn (the same old lessons) at our expense. Even though
we are going backwards, we call this progress.
Today, when someone stays in the same company (or
worse, in the same job) for a few years, he/she would
be considered dead wood. Job-hopping is no longer
a derogative term. There are, of course, many reasons
why people might want to change jobs/employers, but
learning a new job takes time and to be really good at
it takes a bit more time. There is, of course, value in job
rotation but the length of a stint should be suffcient to
test and see the results of a persons performance, and
for that person to learn and understand enough about the
job and that part of the organization.
In many places today, there is little sense of pride in ones
work. A ship costs millions of dollars to build but has a
shipyard warranty of only one year. It would be alright
if quality standards were fne. This is, however, not the
case. Most responsible shipowners need to employ
teams of supervisors to ensure that the ships are properly
built and, even then, it is common to hear of breakdowns
during delivery voyages, caused by poor workmanship or
even design. Tar epoxy used to be commonly applied as
coatings in ballast tanks and these would last about 10,
15 or even more years before failure. Nowadays, we are
supposed to have better coating products but they often
fail in less than half the time. We need a quality culture,
and workers and supervisors who are proud of their
work and themselves. Unfortunately, this is not the case
and many organizations and their people would be quite
happy to get it over with, collect payment and move
on. Where is the sense of professionalism, ethics or
morality when ships are sent to sea with known defects,
and crews often have to conduct cover-up operations
when encountering inspectors? Some of these crews
then blow the whistle to local authorities and collect a
reward when the owners/managers are convicted.
There is widespread lack of knowledge and experience
within the industry, based on feedback from surveying
organizations, shipmanagers and seafarers. Changes in
design and construction of machinery and equipment are
taking place very quickly, and there is often inadequate
time for proper testing or to train all involved in their
proper operation, maintenance and trouble-shooting.
Because of the shortage of people, most are promoted
very quickly without gaining the necessary experience
and knowledge. Even rules and regulations (coming from
different quarters the IMO, regional blocs, individual
states, industry) are changing so quickly that the industry
is fnding it diffcult to cope, let alone try to understand
and be persuaded as to their objectives. This gives rise
to more skepticism and cynicism.
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SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Motivation
Motivation can be a very powerful force but unfortunately
has very much been forgotten. Many children struggle
with schoolwork but few have difficulty using the
computer without any help or instruction. Avid golfers
think little about waking up at 5 am to catch an early (golf)
fight, but would complain if asked to get up at 7 for work.
We should therefore be more focused on getting people to
be motivated about, and to have pride in their work; about
learning/training in order to be able to do a better job. No
amount of As in academic results can compensate for
a lack of motivation. In selecting fresh recruits or qualifed
offcers, or even in selecting students, identifying those
with the right motivation is the key challenge. With the
right motivation, practically everything can be learnt and
no obstacles are insurmountable.
Permanent Employment/Continuous Development
There ought to be a certain permanency, and security in
employment, with incentives for staying and improving.
Real knowledge and experience should be valued.
The days of automatic salary increments are probably
numbered, as they should be, but there should be reward
for improvement in capability - not just to deal with
the routine, but more to be able to deal with surprises
and uncommon challenges. Experience is required for
effective risk management, just as one needs to mature
to avoid lifes pitfalls. People must be incentivized to
continue working to improve themselves and often even
non-monetary recognition can be very effective.
Code of Conduct
This is as important for individuals (professional
conduct) as it is for organizations (corporate governance/
corporate social responsibility). We need to bring back
professionalism and the strong desire to do ones best
and to have a good reputation for that. There needs to be
strong quality standards for all sectors of the industry, and
people must be motivated towards achieving, and even
surpassing those standards instead of merely paying lip
service or putting on a wayang.
Authentic Learning
Much of education and training today is still based
on memorizing facts and regurgitating them at the
examinations, in order to qualify for certificates or
degrees. This is very much a waste of time and effort
(by students and teachers) as the computer can do a
much better job at storing and retrieval. Furthermore, it
is a demotivating and dehumanizing process for most
involved, and certainly does not prepare people for life
or the jobs they are to do. Authentic learning is a step
in the right direction where students are given real-life
challenges/tasks and learn as they tackle these. The key
element here again is motivation, without which students
(and teachers) will just go through the process, without
achieving much real learning.
Mentoring
When experts leave the scene, their knowledge and
experience disappear as well. This is both sad and silly,
as the succeeding generation tries to learn the same
again through the school of hard knocks. Why does
each generation have to go through the same pain and
suffering? Just as disciples seek out the venerable
kung-fu master, we should have recruits and juniors
seeking out the experienced engineers and navigators
to be mentors, to guide them as they progress up the
professional ladder.
Reward Loyalty
No organization can survive where there is no loyalty from
the staff, or where the staff do not trust the organization
and cannot be trusted to do what is good for the
organization. This needs to be recognized and one way is
to reward loyalty. But loyalty does not mean just staying
in the same company for a long time this would then
include dead wood. Staff must have a positive interest
in the well-being of the company and act in the interest
of the company, including looking after the assets of the
company.
Account for Most Valuable Assets
Most organizations would profess that their most
valuable assets are their people. In some cases, people
are practically their only assets. yet, you would not see
this asset class in their balance sheets. How can this be
acceptable to the stakeholders? How can this be good
corporate governance? One of the obvious outcomes
of this lacuna is that people are not actually valued, and
companies do not account for their loss or gain. This
needs to be corrected, and this very important asset
needs to be valued and accounted for in the balance
sheets.
Technical Papers
50
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ABSTRACT
Marine shipping is a huge industry, holding the
responsibility of transporting more than 90% of the
trade around the world thus with great infuence on the
global economy. International shipping is found, however,
guilty of contributing signifcantly to the environmental
pollution. Over the past decades, the excessive emission
of SO
X
, NO
X
and other pollutants has negatively affected
the marine life, environment and the human health. As
global shipping is estimated to keep growing over the
next decades, control and reduction of marine emissions
is an essential task which requires immediate attention.
Despite the introduction of number of technologies,
some techno-economical hurdles have hampered their
widespread acceptance and implementation for large
scale commercial applications. This paper reviews the
issues and provides the latest updates concerning the
marine emissions and their impact on environment.
Some of the past, present and future trends in control,
limiting and regulating the emissions will be discussed.
The available options, potential solutions and challenges
in tackling the marine emissions will be addressed from
the perspective of various parties involved.
1. INTRODUCTION
Clean air, comprised mostly nitrogen and oxygen and
several other gases constitute an essential part of a
healthy environment. The air becomes polluted when
concentration of some of the components exceed
certain limits or is contaminated with certain substances.
The polluted air is well known for causing a variety of
undesirable effects on human health and environment.
This has received great attention and attempts have
been made, especially in the recent decades, for better
understanding of the causes and effects of air pollution
Marine Emissions: Issues, Challenges and
Potential Solutions
and identifcation of various approaches to control and
minimize its adverse effects.
2. EMISSIONS IN MARINE ENVIRONMENT
Today, the shipping industry plays an important role in
global trade and economy. About 90% of the goods
across the world are transported over sea; mostly due to
the high energy effciency of the ships. However, ships
and other marine vessels contribute to air pollution and
environmental degradation through the exhaust emitted
from their engines. Among various environments, marine
environment has been found to be more vulnerable and
sensitive to the adverse effects of air pollution. The
emissions from the ships not only affect the marine
environment, but its adverse effects are also extended
to coastal areas. In fact besides pollution caused due
to human activities, naturally occurring pollution is also
responsible for damage to the environment.
The adverse effects of marine emissions on the
environment and human health are numerous. Oxides of
sulphur (SO
X
) and Oxides of nitrogen (NO
X
), among other
components of shipping emissions cause acidifcation of
ecosystems, with more severe effects in coastal areas
[1]
.
SO
X
and NO
X
are also identifed as important sources for
generation of sulphate and nitrate particulate matters (PM).
Exposure to these fne particles can result in a number of
deadly diseases including cardiovascular diseases. The
lung and heart diseases caused due to marine emissions
are found responsible for the death of about 60,000
people in 2002. This is estimated to increase by 40% till
2012 in conjunction with the increasing trend of global
shipping traffc
[2]
. Additionally, depositions of NO
X
from
shipping emission have signifcant negative effects on
the biodiversity and damage both vegetation and human
health through the eutrophication process and formation
Seyed Saeid HOSSEINI
Research Engineer, Keppel Offshore & Marine
Technology Centre (Oil & Energy Industry)
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51
of groundlevel ozone. The material degradation process
is accelerated in the presence of high levels of ozone,
SO
X
and NO
X
. Ships also produce relatively substantial
amount of carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
(PAH) due to the use of heavy fuel oil. The overall damage
due to marine emissions on human health, environment,
and buildings is estimated to be about 2.7 billion (US$4
billion). Thus, it can be realized that the shipping emission
has become a big issue and expected to go worse, if no
mitigating action is taken.
In fact, shipping industry has been facing challenges in
solving the marine emissions. Challenges range from the
emission quantifcation and measurement, formulating
suitable regulations and timelines, enforcement of
legislation to fnding practical yet economic solutions
to tackle emissions. The increasing number of R&D
programs initiated by the governmental and private
organizations can clearly confrm the increasing trend.
This has been driven partly due to the commitments
made for environmental protection and also the need for
establishment of a sustainable marine industry. One may
be able to describe these activities in the key areas of
marine emission measurement, conceptual design and
development of technological mechanisms and solutions
with desired performance. The ultimate goal is to develop
or identify practical while cost-effective methods or
technology that can attract the attention of parties in
marine industry. It should be noted that these programs
have, thus far resulted in development of number of
technologies for treatment of various components of
exhaust gas emitted from marine vessels. In recent
years, more studies have been conducted focusing
on estimation of shipping emissions and pollution
inventories on regional and global scales
[3,4,5]
. Efforts
have been made toward developing methodologies that
can quantify the marine emissions and estimate their
environmental impacts. For example, in 1993, ships were
found to contribute to about 15% and 5-8% of the total
nitrogen and sulphur emissions, respectively, through
their combustion sources. Developed methodologies
were found useful in updating the marine emission
inventories. However, newer estimates indicate doubling
value for NO
X
and CO
2
emissions. In addition, a 50%
more emission is estimated for SO
X
compared to its
earlier estimates.
It should be highlighted that liquid fossil fuel is anticipated
to remain as the major source of energy for marine vessels
for at least a next few decades. Nonetheless, in recent
years, marine industry has been actively participating
in attempts for fnding better alternatives. Studies and
trials on the feasibility of employing renewable sources
such as solar and wind energy are numerous. According
to some experts, although these methods may not be
able to supply the entire energy required by the engines,
promising results have been found for their application
to support part of the vessels power requirements.
Another example is the nuclear energy which despite
the technical feasibility, its widespread implementation
for marine vessels has been hampered due to the high
cost. In addition to the improvements in ship components
such as propeller and hull designs to increase propulsion
effciency, some operational techniques such as fuel
blending and lowering the speed of the ship are currently
being experimented and found effective in reducing the
emissions.
3. MARINE EMISSION REGULATIONS
As the societies concerns about the emissions increase,
the rules and regulations need to be updated regularly to
ensure establishment of better environmental protection
policies. Achieving the ultimate goal of reduction in
emissions requires global agreements and joint efforts
between various parties involved in shipping industry
including ship designers, engine manufacturers, ship
owners, shipbuilders, classification societies and
regulatory organizations. Efforts have been made, at
regional and international levels to set suitable guidelines
for control and reduction of marine emissions. The
International Maritime Organizations (IMO) MARPOL
(Annex VI) and other regional legislations such as EU
Directives and US EPA policies are some of the regulations
developed so far. It is anticipated that enforcement of
these regulations will signifcantly improve the current
situation as more than 100,000 of worlds fleet of
merchant ships in terms of their emissions as about 60%
of this feet are the ships above 400 gross tonnes (GT) that
mostly use heavy fuels as source of energy. For example,
based on some statistics, the enforcements of Annex
VI can result in about 30% reduction in worldwide NO
X

emissions compared to the levels recorded in 1992.
MARPOL Annex VI is a set of principal legislations ratifed
by IMO for regulating harmful air emissions in marine
environment. The Annex VI includes the regulations
for the prevention of air pollution from ships. It covers
a number of different key pollutants including oxides
of sulphur (SO
X
), oxides of nitrogen (NO
X
), particulate
52
|
matters, ozone depleting substances and volatile organic
compounds. Other substances are potentially to be
included in the annex. It also specifes the limits and
requirements that marine vessels must comply. MARPOL
Annex VI, adopted in 1997 and has been signed off by
the fag States of some 49 countries (listed on the IMO
website at www.imo.org) constituting almost 75% of
world tonnage and has been into force since May 2005.
Since then it has gone under major amendments and
revisions in response to the need for further improvement
in air quality. The changes have been mainly focusing
on progressive reduction of SO
X
and NO
X
emissions.
The latest of these revisions was made during the last
meeting of Marine Environment Protection Committee
(MEPC) held in October 2008. The IMO rules cover all
new ships (or major retrofts) built after January 1, 2000,
with engines rated greater than 130 kW. According to
Annex VI, fxed and foating platforms, including drilling
rigs and similar structures are considered as ships, except
in respect of those emissions to the atmosphere resulting
directly from operations solely related to their drilling,
production or processing functions. Vessels liable to
prevailing IMO regulations are required to adopt a suitable
strategy among the proposed options in order to meet
the requirements. The Annex VI requirements will also
apply to ships of non-signatory States while operating in
waters under the jurisdiction of parties to the protocol.
Ships are to adopt a suitable strategy from among the
options including switch to alternative fuels or the ones
with a higher quality, retroft the existing equipments or
install additional equipments such as abatement systems
to meet the requirements.
The MARPOL Annex VI, initially set a global cap of 4.5%
sulphur content for the bunker fuels to be used in ships.
Later few geographical regions such as North Sea and
Baltic Sea were introduced as sulphur emissions control
area (SECA) wherein further limitations (1.5% S) were
enforced. This is due to the fact that diesel engines of the
ships have been found to contribute as much as 30% of
the SO
X
content in coastal areas
[3]
. In order to qualify to
enter the SECA area, ships shall fulfl at least one of the
following conditions stated in SO
X
clause:
Thesulphurcontentofthefueloilonboardtheships
should not exceed 1.5% m/m;
Anapprovedexhaustgascleaningsystem(forboth
auxiliary and main propulsion engines) to be installed to
limit the total emission of sulphur oxides to regulated
levels. The waste streams of such systems shall
be treated and discharged based on the governing
criteria.
Adoption of any other verifable and enforceable
method that can reduce the emissions and give marine
vessel the opportunity to meet the regulations.
Baltic Sea was the frst of its kind introduced as SECA
area and the rules came into effect in 2006. Further, due
to the successful results, North Sea and English Channel
were declared as SECA regions in 2007. Discussions are
underway that other areas such as west of the British
Isles, west of continental Europe, US coastal waters and
the Mediterranean may be expected to join SECAs. In
addition the SECA areas are further extended to ECA
(Emission Control Area) that included limitations with
respect to the NO
X
and potentially other pollutants.
One of the major issues regarding the implementation
of the equivalent sulphur content in fuel has been its
potential role in accentuating the prevalent disputes over
the inconsistency in ordered and delivered fuels among
the fuel buyer and supplier and inspector would be more
pronounced. In addition, some discussions are underway
indicating that the sulphur content of the fuel is to be
tested with an accuracy of two decimals (i.e., 0.01%) and
which will be used in imposing penalties if exceeding the
specifed limits. yet, it needs to be specifed whether the
fuel supplier or the operator would be responsible in case
any breach to the regulations is made.
In recent years, more attention have been paid to the
necessity to eliminate the NO
X
emissions and to prevent
the dispersion of particulate matters. This has been
refected in Annex VI and updated revisions include rules
and regulations for control of NO
X
and PMs. Emission
standards for NO
X
were also defined including the
engines with power output of greater than 130kW.
The NO
X
emission limits are regulated for new engines
and categorized in a three tier system. Tier I is aimed
to cover the current limits in MARPOL Annex VI, the
Tier II is set to reduce the NO
X
emissions based on the
latest developments in engine design and technology. It
is expected to achieve 15-25% reductions by this Tier.
However, Tier III is set-up to impose further limits on the
NO
X
emissions through further developments in engine
technology or employment of suitable NO
X
abatement
system. It is deemed that 2011 and 2015/16 would be
appropriate timelines for implementation of Tier II and
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53
III. However, these are subject to review by MEPC
committee. Although the Tier system is set-up for new
engines, yet the issue for existing engines (built before
2000) remain unsolved. Although some of the engines
are technically feasible to be modifed for emissions
reductions, some of them may face diffculties due
to issues like unavailability of the parts or some of the
manufacturers are going out of existence.
4. TRENDS IN TACKLING SO
X
EMISSIONS

Marine fuels are typically blends of residuals produced as
by product of the crude oil processing. Therefore marine
fuels are ranked as one of the lowest quality and worst
in terms of highest levels of sulphur content. Despite the
low energy value, the low price premium has resulted in
the dominance of the heavy fuels in marine industry. It
should be noted that the current global consumption of
marine fuel is about 369 million metric tonnes per annum.
Bunker fuel constitutes about 78% of the total fuel
consumption mainly used for the ships above 400 GT.
It is estimated that the total fuel consumption by ships
will growth more than about 30% by 2020. However, the
share of heavy fuel oil is expected to remain at the same
level of about 78% (~382 million MT). In other words,
these fgures indicate the expected rise in total sulphur
emissions from the current value of about 16.2 million
MT to about 22.7 million MT by 2020 per annum.
The concerns about emissions of sulphur oxides are
of the highest importance among the others. SO
X
are
comprised of various oxides of sulphur, and in particular
SO
2
and SO
3
, derived from burning of various kinds of
sulphur species present in fuels. SO
X
emissions are
responsible for acidifcation of groundwater and other
adverse effects to the environment. Basically, there
exists a direct relationship between the sulphur content
of the fuel and the amount of SO
X
emitted in the exhaust
gas. The problem arises when these fuels, containing
majority of the sulphur species found in the crude, are
combusted.
Basically, two key approaches have been proposed for
tackling the SO
X
emissions: one is through the elimination
of sulphur from the fuel (i.e., Emission Prevention
Approach). Whereas another one is through capturing
the sulphur species in the form of SO
X
from the exhaust
gas (i.e., Emission Abatement Approach) which are
discussed here.
The use of marine fuels with low sulphur content has
been one of the most direct steps toward tackling the
SO
X
emissions. Designation of SECA areas are examples
of implementation of such approach. According to
IMO, the switch from current fuel with global average
sulphur content of 2.7% to marine distillate (0.5% S) can
potentially cut the SO
X
emissions by about 78 % over
the next decade. However, some challenges have yet
prevented the widespread implementation of using
fuel with low sulphur content. Despite the advances in
desulphurization technology, this process is still very
complex, energy intensive and costly. Therefore, low
sulphur fuels are generally of the high price premium in
the market. This is one of the most important factors
as fuel costs are of the primary expenses of ocean
transportation.
Another serious concern is that the refneries may not
be ready to process and supply the required amount of
fuels with desired specifcation. This is partially related
to the fact that refneries hesitate to put huge amount
of investments to upgrade the quality of the marine
fuels. Refneries, in fact, would be more comfortable to
spend this investment on other sectors or products with
higher profts than on bunker fuel. The product of the
fuel desulphurization process is a light product which is
mostly desirable for blending with distillate fuels rather
than just being used as marine fuel. More thoughts would
also be required on the obstacles in handling and disposal
of the huge amount of heavy sludge left over after
upgrading the bunker fuels. Refneries are expectedly to
refrain from paying additional costs for separating this
sludge that otherwise could be sold as a component
of the bunker fuel. Also it would be a tedious task for
bunker industry to implement the stringent quality control
with potential risks for non-compliance with prevailing
regulations. Comprehensive studies have been carried
out on the economics of reducing the sulphur levels in
marine fuels
[6,7]
In addition, achieving this target also
requires more new refneries with larger capacities to be
constructed to meet the required capacity. The additional
carbon footprint of refneries especially considering
the current carbon credit market also needs to be
addressed.
Currently, by the adoption of a few strategies, it has
been possible to extend the supply quantity of the low
sulphur fuels. Among these methods, fuel blending has
been one of the simplest techniques with the least costs
(price premiums: 10-16 Euro/ton) mostly contributed
54
|
by the logistics. In comparison, fuel desulphurization is
very costly (with price premium: 50-90/ton in 475-135/
ton) largely due to the substantial investments in refnery
facilities
[6]
.
Overall, despite its attractive features and promising
trend, it is less likely that reduction in sulphur content
is used to solve the emissions problem, at least for the
near future. Some vessel owners are now considering
securing low sulphur fuel contracts for their operations.
This requires a proper strategy for fuel management
and also familiarization with the effects of fuel switch
on engine operation, performance, maintenance and
longevity. The fuel switching option requires retroftting
and additional equipments along with the necessary
piping onboard ships. It should be noted that retroftting
of the ships to accommodate the fuel switching would
bring additional costs to the owner including the time
lost during the docking and also the labour cost. These
expenses may be minimized if the retroftting operation
coincides with the ship maintenance period. Ships
typically have a number of segregated storage tanks but
allocation of separate tanks for residual, distillate and low
sulphur fuels seems to be necessary. Some owners have
specifed design and allocation of extra space for low
sulphur fuel tanks in their new vessels to be constructed.
Some other concerns have been raised, especially
about the change in lubricity of the fuel and its potential
damage to the engine parts, fuel delivery and injection
with respect to its thermal properties, fuel compatibility
during the switching process and high vulnerability of the
engine parts to wear.
The use of the special additives has been claimed as a
potential effective method for the SO
X
reduction from the
ships. This technology is based on addition of additives
(typically in the ranges of <~5-10% or less) containing
functional elements like calcium that can react with
sulphur species of the fuel and convert them to the
sulphate form. However, this technology has only been
applied for SO
X
reduction from the FCC unit in refneries
by using some commercialized products (such as
SOXGETTER
TM
, SO
X
MASTER, etc.). Although removal
effciencies of up to 99% for refnery applications have
been reported, the viability of this approach for marine
vessels needs to be verifed.
The role of technology in solving the marine emissions
has been more pronounced in provision of abatement
systems such as scrubbers that are capable to capture
some of the pollutants from the exhaust gas. This
method has been widely used for power plants onshore
but considerations have been made to apply the concept
to the ships by accounting for their mobile nature and
limited access.
On this basis, two major configurations open- and
close-loop have been developed to suit the shipboard
applications. The open-loop confguration is based on
the circulations of seawater followed by treatment and
discharge to the sea. On the other hand, the close-
loop system operates based on the use of fresh water
functionalized by addition of typically an alkaline agent,
such as caustic soda.
Seawater scrubbing is most widely used due to the
obvious advantage of availability of seawater. Several trials
have been carried out in various regions and reduction
effciencies of up to about 95% have been achieved.
In conjunction with SO
X
, the system can substantially
reduce the particulate matters. Efforts have been made
to improve the capability of the system by using other
chemicals such as alkaline solutions. These systems
essentially provide greater effciencies through more
effective interaction with SO
X
, subsequently smaller
footprint and less energy consumption. However, yet
there remains concerns on the possible side effects of
handling and discharge of waste water produced in the
course of the process on the ecosystems. This issue has
been discussed in MARPOL Annex VI and ships must
follow the guidelines to meet the requirement for proper
treatment and discharge of the waste streams. In fact,
all proposed scrubbing systems need to be approved
according to the rules described in MARPOL Annex VI.
The scrubbing process inherently possess relatively high
effciency (90~95%). Demonstrations have revealed
that integrating a scrubbing process to the exhaust gas
of a marine engine burning 4% sulphur content fuel
can provide results equivalent to the use of fuel with
0.2% sulphur content. The capability of the scrubbers
in removing the particulates is an additional advantage,
though at the expense of additional equipment required
for waste water treatment. However, in some cases, the
existing facilities for oily water treatment may be used or
retroftted for this purpose.
It should be noted that the major costs for scrubber
systems are associated with the investments, power,
chemical costs and sludge treatment/disposal.
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55
Despite the attractive features of scrubbing process,
still there exist some issues that have hampered the
widespread applicability of this technique. One is the
space constraints, especially for retroftting of existing
ship, due to the large footprints that would be required
in order to handle the large fow of the exhaust gas in
marine vessels. In addition, inevitable vessel motions,
even at moderate sea states can potentially cause
some operational problems for the scrubber system.
Essentially, almost all the scrubbers are advised to be
constructed from the exotic materials, such as titanium,
that can withstand the high acidity of the solutions. The
high temperature of the process has accelerating effect
on the degradation of materials.
5. TRENDS IN TACKLING NO
X
EMISSIONS

NOx emissions are essentially various forms of nitrogen
oxides which their negative impact on the environment
has attracted attentions. The NO
X
is mostly of NO whereas
NO
2
constitutes only about less than 10%. In contrast
to SO
X
, NO
X
emissions are almost independent of the
fuel (despite the small percentage of nitrogen molecules
in fuels) and are produced due to the exposure of air to
the very hot temperature of the combustion process.
The NOx formation is accelerated as the temperature
rises and this has been one of the limiting factors for
enhancing the energy effciency in engines by increasing
combustion temperature.
Similar to SO
X
, two basic approaches of prevention
and abatement have been proposed for tackling NO
X
emissions. Advocates of NO
X
prevention approach have
recommended the idea employing alternative mode of
energy generation technologies such as fuel cell that
can effectively provide energy without requiring any
combustion process. Despite its attractive features,
this technology has been viable only for submarines and
further developments would be required to extend the
application to ships.
Another area of interest for prevention of NO
X
formation
has been through engine modifications. Engine
manufacturers have made efforts including geometrical
optimization of the combustion chambers, identifcation
of the best injection confgurations and adjustment of
engine valve and injection timing with ultimate goal of
promotion of high mixing effciency and minimization of
temperature peaks.
Despite the advances in engine technology, still one
of the key challenges is fnding optimum parameters
that can reconcile advantageous features of various
confgurations into one design. Despite the attractive
features of engine modifcation technique, this approach
seemingly cannot provide an immediate solution to the
NO
X
problem as implementation of improved engines to
the old feet of marine vessels requires quite long time
with substantial investment.
Elevated temperature of the combustion process is one
of the key causes of the NO
X
formation. Thus, the use
of water and some other selected additives have been
recommended to reduce this temperature. Water can
be blended with fuel beforehand, to form emulsifed
fuel or to can be injected simultaneously with fuel into
the combustion chamber. The preparation of the stable
emulsifed fuel plays the key role in this technology. This
is typically achieved through the use of emulsifers to
promote the miscibility of oil and water. Another way
to tackle this problem is preparation of emulsifed fuel
right before injection
[8]
. Basically the explosion of small
water droplets can enhance the mixing of fuel and
combustion air thus the reduction effciency is directly
proportional to the amount of water in the fuel. Trials on
medium and heavy-duty marine engines have shown
NO
X
and PM reductions effciencies of up to 50% and
80%, respectively. The water injection technology is
relatively of low cost, especially for installation, compared
to other counterparts. Of the major concerns that have
hampered the widespread application of this technology
are increased fuel consumption, modifcation of engine
and changes in fuel injection timing
[9]
.
Alternatively, water can be introduced in the form of
humid air. Of the merits of the humid air motors (HAM)
technology are relatively low operating cost, high NO
X

reduction efficiency and performance independent
from other parameters such as fuel type and engine
workload
[10]
. The even distribution of the moisture in the
combustion chamber contributes to the NO
X
reduction
through reduction of hot spots in fame zone. However, the
excessive amount of humidity may lower the effciency
of the oxidation process, with increased hydrocarbon
and particulate emissions through uncombusted residual
fuels. Some efforts have been made to improve the
system by creating multiple injection points
[11]
. On the
other hand, relatively large amount of hot water would be
required to supply the humid air. The energy required for
this heating is a concern. Other operational diffculties like
56
|
control of the combustion process at various loads and
also control of the humidity level need to be resolved.
Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) is another method for
reduction of NO
X
emissions and effciencies as high as
90% could be achieved. The SCR technology is based
on the decomposition of NO
X
into nitrogen, oxygen and
water. This is accomplished through reaction of NO
X
with
specifc chemicals like urea or ammonia over the catalyst.
The production of inherently benign products is of key
merits of SCR technology. The SCR has been used for
both new built and retroftting of existing ships and can
also replace the exhaust silencers.
One of the key concerns for SCR is the storage and
handling of ammonia. One alternative for this problem
has been the use of urea and its conversion into ammonia
in the course of reaction. Nevertheless, considerations
need to be taken as these consumable chemicals are
required to be supplied to the vessel regularly to assure
the operation. The catalytic process is rather complex
requiring continuous process control to maintain the
high effciency. The ammonia slip due to the incomplete
reaction is yet a great concern as it is very harmful to
the environment. The SCR catalyst is very costly and
vulnerable to the sulfur containing fuels and this imposes
certain requirements for the quality of the exhaust gas
entering the SCR system in terms of sulfur content.
This generally can be achieved through limitations in
sulfur content of the fuel or some sort of abatement to
clean up the sulfur from the exhaust. The presence of
the catalyst bed, naturally creates back pressure for the
exhaust fow, which in fact negatively affects the engine
performance.
5. CONCLUSIONS
The increasing concerns over the air pollutants in marine
environment have attracted global attentions. This has
resulted in many efforts targeting the reduction and
control of emissions in shipping industry. The subject of
environmental protection has been one of the key areas
of focus at Keppel Offshore and Marine. Although, a
number of approaches and technologies such as limiting
the sulphur content of the fuels, engine modifcation,
abatement systems, etc. have been proposed and
practiced with some success, the ever-growing feet
size and the large diversity of marine vessels requires
a proper strategy, planning and regulations to achieve
the objectives with minimum adverse effects to the
industry. As part of the commitment for sustainable
development, Keppel Offshore & Marine Technology
Centre (KOMtech), has been looking for development
of a suitable solution for tackling marine emissions with
primary and special focus on SO
X
, NO
x
and particulate
matter (PM). In KOMtechs view, the shipping industry
needs to be prepared for the tough times in coming years,
as the regulations are becoming more and more stringent
and the current approach of using low-sulphur fuel is
facing challenges due to the increase in demand and
shortage of supply by refners. As such low-sulphur fuel
solution is not the preferred solution. Therefore, the post-
combustion treatment of marine emissions (especially
in case of SO
X
, NO
X
and PM) is the focus at KOMtech
and it is our mission to develop a viable technology with
prominent features of high effciency, small footprint and
economical viability that can attract the ship owners and
also meet the regulatory requirements.
REFERENCES
1. Directive 2002/80/EC of the European Parliament
and of the Council of 23 October 2001 on the
limitation of emissions of certain air pollutants into
the air from large combustion plants. OJL309, pp.
1-21. European Commission, Brussels, Belgium.
2. J.J. Corbett, J.J. Winebrake, E. Green, P. Kasibhatla,
V. Eyring, A. Lauer, Mortality from ship emissions:
A global assessment, J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 41
(2007) pp. 8512-8518.
3. J.J. Corbett, P. Fischbeck, and S. Pandis, Global
nitrogen and sulphur inventories for oceangoing
ships, J. Geophys. Res., 104:3 (1999) pp. 3457-
3470.
4. K. Capaldo, J.J. Corbett, P. Kasibhatla, P. Fischbeck
and S.N. Pandis, Effects of ship emissions on
sulphur cycling and radiative climate forcing over
the oceans Nature, 400 (1999) pp. 743-746.
5. J.J. Corbett, H.W. Koehler, Updated emissions from
ocean going shipping, J. Geophys. Res., 108:D20
(2003) 4650.
6. Beicip-Franlab (2002). Advice on the costs to fuel
producers and price premia likely to result from a
reduction in the level of sulphur in fuels marketed in
the EU. European Commission Study C1/01/2002.
Contract ENV. C1/SER/2001/0063.
www.europa.eu.i nt /comm/envi ronment /ai r/
background.htm#transport
|
57
7. Beicip-Franlab (2003). Advice on marine fuels.
Potential price premium for 0.5% S marine fuels.
European Commission Study C1/03/2003. Contract
ENV. C1/SER/2001/0063.
www.europa.eu.i nt /comm/envi ronment /ai r/
background.htm#transport
8. Blue Skies Ahead for WiFE on Demand SPECIAL
ADVERTISING SECTION Businessweek McGrow
Hill 2008, February 4, 2008 ISSUE, Next Generation
Green: Tomorrows Innovative Green Business
Leaders
9. Marine Atmospheric Pollution in Canadian Waters,
Polar Design Associates Inc., March 1996
10. Kgeson, P. (1999). Economic instruments for
reducing emissions from sea transport. Air pollution
and climate series No. 11. The Swedish NGO
Secretariat on Acid Rain, Gteborg, Sweden.
www.acidrain.org
11. G. Rideout, N. Meyer, Marine Vessel Exhaust
Emission Program: A study of the effects of
multiple emissions reduction technologies on the
exhaust emissions of marine diesel engines, (TP
14099E), Prepared for Transport Development
Centre Transport Canada, By Emission Research
and Management Division Environment Canada,
April 2003
This paper is featured in this Journal courtesy of Keppel
Offshore & Marine Technology Centre (KOMtech). This
paper also appears in Technology Review 2009.
58
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ABSTRACT
Skid truss, which is used to support and skid heavy
structural blocks in Jurong Shipyard, is subject to high
static and cyclic stresses during skidding process.
Structural stability of the truss varies with position,
weight distribution of the block, pulling forces and age
of the structure. Vibrating wire strain gauges (VWSG)
were used to monitor the structural health status of the
skid truss because of its low profle design, the ability
to resist corrosion and the comparatively more accurate
and reliable measurements. Structural stress responses
obtained from the real-time measurements using
VWSG sensors were presented with discussions on
the usefulness of these data in monitoring the structural
performance during its operation. Potential application of
this type of sensor for monitoring health status of other
types of structure was discussed.
INTRODUCTION
Skid truss, which is used to transfer structural blocks, is
subject to heavy loadings, environment corrosion, material
aging and fatigue problem. Inspection reports show that
welding defects were found after each operation and
these defects are repaired to maintain the performance
of the structure. However, this method is passive as
it waits for defect to occur without understanding the
structural integrity performance. The size of the skid
truss is about 74.42m long and 36.0m wide. It consists of
six transverse truss frame connected to two longitudinal
truss frames. Each frame is supported by six columns,
each connected to a skid shoe. The skid shoes will slide
along two skid beams during skidding.
Structural Health Monitoring of a Skidding Truss
Using Vibrating Wire Strain Gauge (VWSG)
Dr Lim Chin Lee
B. Eng (Hons), MSc (Eng), PhD
Assistant Section Manager
Sembcorp Marine Technology Pte Ltd
The effectiveness of real-time structural health monitoring
(SHM) was observed by Ren et al.
[1]
. They discovered
that SHM is capable of assessing the health of offshore
structures to provide advance warning of structural
faults and minimizes the maintenance costs. Amano
et al.
[2]
developed an SHM system for an advance grid
structure with embedded fber bragg grating sensors.
Their proposed SHM system can automatically detect
any existence of damage in the structure elements.
Vibrating wire strain gauges (VWSG) are promising
sensing devices for SHM. They exhibit advantages such
as reliable coupling of the gauge to the structural member,
very low profle (usually less than 1mm), and corrosion
protection. Osgerby et al.
[3]
selected VWSG for their
long-term pile tests because of its long-term stability and
the ease with which the measuring equipment can be
disconnected and reconnected without error. DiBiagio
[4]

reported that his VWSGs in an excitation circuit have
been vibrating for 27 years without failures. With these
advantages, Leslie et al.
[5]
used VWSG to confrm the
performance of their nuclear power plant structures after
approximately 25 years of service. VWSG was also used
for study of the creep behaviour of concrete samples
under different stress and temperature conditions by
Horby et al.
[6]
.
The purpose of this paper is to present a set of SHM
system applied in the skidding truss. The SHM system
could transfer the sensor readings wirelessly through a
GPRS modem for transmission to the internet. A similar
type of wireless SHM system has been used by Kim
et al.
[7]
for their tunnel measurement using VWSG. The
SHM system for this project is installed to investigate
|
59
the stress variation during the operation. The measured
data are compared against other engineering data. It can
be concluded that VWSG sensor is an effective sensing
method with high reliability, durability and corrosion
protection that is suitable for application in marine
and offshore structures.
DESCRIPTION
Structural Health Monitoring System
SHM system basically contains a sensing unit, a data
acquisition unit, and a post-processing unit, as shown in
Figure 1.
Figure 1: Structural Health Monitoring System
Sensing Unit VWSG
Figure 2: Vibrating Wire Strain Gauge
Figure 3: Strain Gauge Sensor
The spot-weld strain gauge (Figure 2) consists of a steel
wire held in tension inside a metal casing. The metal
casing it then welded onto the structural member.
These strain gauges measure the strain in the structural
member as any additional strain is transferred through the
casing to the wire inside. An increase in tensile strain will
increase the tension in the wire, and vice versa. Vibrating
wire sensor (Figure 3) is placed atop the wire to initiate
the collection of sensor readings, as it will cause the
wire to vibrate with respect to its tension. This vibration
of the wire within the magnetic coil in the sensor will
introduce frequency signal which will be transferred to
a data-logger.
Data Acquisition Unit Data-Logger
Figure 4: Data-logger
The battery operated data-logger (figure 4) collect
readings from each sensor and store in a memory card.
The data logger converts the intended physical readings
into electronic signals and then to binary data before
transferring these signals to a software tool. These
readings are then transferred to internet via a GPRS
modem (see Figure 5).
VWSG1 VWSG1 VWSG1

DataLogger
DataHandling
Program
SensingUnit
DataAcquisitionUnit
PostProcessingUnit
SteelWire
MetalCasing
Steel Wire
Metal Casing
60
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Figure 5: Live transmission of sensor readings
Figure 6: Data Handling Function in MS Excel for Post-Processing of Data
Case 2:
Vertical load: approx 12000 tons
Horizontal pulling force: approx 500 to 600 tons
Figure 7 & 9 show the stress variation of vertical structural
member at three locations: forward, middle and aft for
Case 1 and Case 2 respectively. It can be observed
that the structural member at aft location experience
the highest stress for both cases. The trends of stress
variation for both cases are very close, with Case 2 delay
in reaching its peak, simply because the process was
Post-Processing Unit
A post-processing function was developed using Visual
Basic Application in MS Excel Spreadsheet (Figure 6) for
post-processing large amount of data recorded by data-
logger.
RESULTS

Case 1:
Vertical load: approx 15000 tons
Horizontal pulling force: approx 500 to 600 tons
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started at a later time. It can be noted that the stress

experienced by the skid truss for both cases are of similar
magnitude for forward location, but higher in Case 1 for
middle location and higher in Case 2 for aft location. This
could be due to the weight distribution of the skid truss.
Relevant engineering data indicated that the centre of
gravity of the loaded skid truss is near to the middle for
Case 1, but the centre of gravity is approximately 2.82m
aft from the middle for Case 2.
Figure 8 & 10 show the stress variation of horizontal
structural member at three locations: forward, middle
and aft for Case 1 and Case 2 respectively. It can be
observed that the structural member at middle location
experience the highest stress for both cases. The trends
of stress variation for both cases are similar.
When monitoring the health status, any stress value
reaching 80% of the yield stress (355MPa for steel)
should be taken extra precaution to prevent structural
failure. It should also be noted that the cyclic stress range
could provide useful information on the fatigue life of the
structure.

Figure 7: Stress variation for vertical structural member (Case 1)
Figure 8: Stress variation for horizontal structural member (Case 1)
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Figure 9: Stress variation for vertical structural member (Case 2)
Figure 10: Stress variation for horizontal structural member (Case 2)
CONCLUSION
By developing a structural health monitoring system,
the structural performance of the skid truss can be
monitored. Wireless data transmission eliminates the
use of lengthy cable wires, which is very useful in the
offshore environment. It can be concluded that VWSG
sensor is an effective sensing method with reliability,
durability and corrosion protection that is suitable for
application in marine and offshore structures.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This study was performed under the project of Structural
Health Monitoring of a Skidding Truss with Jurong
Shipyard. The VWSG sensors, the data acquisition unit
and the wireless data transfer system were developed
and supplied by Maritime Research Centre, NTU.
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REFERENCES
1. Liang Ren, Hong-Nan Li, Jing Zhou, Dong-
sheng Li Li Sun, (2005), Development of Health
Monitoring System for Ocean Offshore Platform
with Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors, Proceedings
of the Fifteenth International Offshore and Polar
Engineering Conference, pp. 424-428.
2. Masataro Amano, yoji Okabe, Nobuo Takeda
and Tsuyoshi Ozaki, (2007), Structural Health
Monitoring of an Advanced Grid Structure with
Embedded Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors, Structural
Health Monitoring 2007; 6; 309, pp. 209-324.
3. C. Osgerby, P.T. Taylor (1968), Vibrating-wire
Load Cell for Long-term Pile Tests, Experimental
Mechanics, Department of Civil and Structural
Engineering, University of Sheffeld, pp. 429
430.
4. E.DiBiagio (2003), A Case Study of Vibrating-Wire
Sensors That Have Vibrated Continuously For 27
years, Technical Notes of Norwegian Geotechnical
Institute (NGI).
5. Leslie M. Smith, Gary L. Brodt, Bryn Stafford (2001),
Performance Assessment and Reinstatement of
Vibrating Wire Strain Gauges in Nuclear Power Plant
Structures, Transactions, SMiRT 16, Washington
DC, Paper #1886.
6. I.W.Hornby and B.E.Noltingk (1974), The
Application of the Vibrating-wire Principle for
Measurement of Strain in Concrete, Experimental
Mechanics, Central Electricity Research
Laboratories, Leatherhead, pp. 123-136.
7. Kim Jung yeol, yoo Hyun Suk, Kwon Soon Wook,
Cho Moon young (2007), Development of Wireless
Module for Tunnel Vibrating Wire Type Sensor,
24th International Symposium on Automation &
Robotics in Construction (ISARC 2007).
Dr Lim Chin Lee is currently working in Sembcorp
Marine Technology Pte Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary
of Sembcorp Marine Ltd. He studied mechanical
engineering at the University of Leeds. He received a PhD
degree on non-linear dynamic analysis of fexible rotor
system using fnite element method. He has experience
from design and analysis of foating structures.
Organisation: Sembcorp Marine Technology Pte Ltd
Address: 29 Tanjong Kling Road, Singapore 628054
Email: cllim@smtpl.com.sg
Tel: 6262 8010
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ABSTRACT
The International Maritime Organisation (IMO)
Performance Standard for Protective Coatings (PSPC)
applies to all ships with more than 500 GRT where the
building contract was placed on or after 1 July 2008. This
means that the IMO PSPC may be relevant for many
Offshore Supply Vessels (OSV). This paper outlines
the motivation and background for the IMO PSPC and
describes its main elements. Furthermore, it discusses
the main implications for shipyards and ship owners,
in particular some of the implementation challenges in
relation to OSVs.
INTRODUCTION
IMO has approved the Performance Standard for
Protective Coatings (PSPC) of dedicated seawater ballast
tanks in all new ships and of double-side skin spaces
of large bulk carriers (2006). The IMO PSPC applies to
all ships with more than 500 GRT where the building
contract was placed on or after 1 July 2008. This means
that the IMO PSPC may be relevant for many OSVs. The
target useful coating life of the new requirements is that
the coating system remains in GOOD condition for 15
years. The IMO PSPC specifes how coating systems
are to be approved, how surfaces are prepared prior to
coating and how the coating process is to be carried
out and monitored. Furthermore, there is a requirement
to document materials and process in what is called a
coating technical fle (CTF). To comply with the new
requirements, shipyards are upgrading their production
facilities and work processes.
The aim of this paper is to outline the motivation and
background for the IMO PSPC and describe its main
elements. Next, it will discuss the main implications for
Dr Jan Weitzenbck
Helge Vold, Gisle Hersvik and Bjarne Jansen
Det Norske Veritas AS, Approval Centre Norway, 1322 Hvik, Norway
Jan.Weitzenboeck@dnv.com
New IMO Requirements for Coating of Ballast
Water Tanks: Challenges and Solutions
shipyards and ship owners. In particular it will discuss
some of the implementation challenges in relation to
OSVs. Finally examples of possible solutions for design
and manufacture will be discussed.
MOTIVATION AND BACKGROUND FOR THE
IMO PSPC
Some of the recent accidents with tanker such as
Erika and Prestige triggered the development of new
regulation to make these types of vessel safer. Structural
design was improved by developing common structural
rules for bulk carriers and crude oil tankers. At the same
time new requirements for the corrosion protection of
seawater ballast tanks were developed. In 1998, frst
regulation was put in place for coating of water ballast
tanks: SOLAS Ch. II-1/Reg. 3-2 Coating of ballast tanks.
However, this was not followed up in the intended way
and a new resolution was agreed upon in 2006 to impose
stricter requirements on the coating activities in water
ballast tanks.
RESOLUTIONMSC.215(82),adoptedon8December
2006: Performance Standard for Protective Coatings
for Dedicated Seawater Ballast Tanks in all types of
ships and double-side skin spaces of bulk carriers
(PSPC)

RESOLUTIONMSC.216(82),adoptedon8December
2006: implementation of MSC.215(82) in SOLAS
Reg.II-1/3-2
As of 1st July 2008 the IMO PSPC applies to the
protective coatings in dedicated seawater ballast tanks
of all types of ships of not less than 500 GRT and double-
side skin spaces of bulk carriers 150 m in length. Fishing
vessels and naval craft are exempted from IMO PSPC.
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65
Coating is now considered a safety issue. The main aim
of IMO PSPC is to achieve a target useful life of 15 years.
This is the time from initial application of the coating
over which the coating system is intended to remain
in GOOD condition. IMO PSPC defnes GOOD
condition as a surface having only minor spot rusting as
defned in resolution A.744(18). IACS made this defnition
more specifc in its procedural requirement PR 34. There it
is stated that GOOD is defned as: Condition with spot
rusting on less than 3% of the area under consideration
without visible failure of the coating. Rusting at edges or
welds, must be on less than 20% of edges or welds in
the area under consideration. One example is shown in
Figure 1.
Figure 1 New ballast water tank & in
GOOD condition after 15 years
MAIN ELEMENTS OF THE IMO PSPC
The IMO PSPC (2006) specifes in Section 4.4 the basic
coating requirements for protective coating systems to
be applied at ship construction for seawater ballast water
tanks and double-skin spaces for bulk carriers of 150 m in
length and upwards.
Primary Surface Preparation
Steel plates are to be blast cleaned to Sa 2 (ISO 8501-
1) and primed with a shop primer. The shop primer
shall be of an inhibitor free zinc silicate type and shall
be compatible and pre-qualifed with the main coating
system.
Secondary Surface Preparation
One of the main requirements is that sharp edges are
removed from all free edges and rounded to a radius of
2 mm. Alternatively one can use three pass grinding.
Intact shop primer may be retained if pre-qualifed to be
compatible with the coating system. Primer that is not
prequalifed has to be removed (at least 70%) by blast
cleaning to Sa 2. Steel imperfections are to be treated
with manual grinding to grade P2 according to ISO 8501-
3. Damaged shop primers and along welds the surface
is blast cleaned to Sa 2. The surface cleanliness is
assessed visually according to ISO 8501-1.
Surface Preparation After Erection
Erection weld lines and damages to the coating after
erection may be repaired manually for small damages
up to 2% of the area under consideration. The required
surface cleanliness is St3. For contiguous damages
over 25m
2
or more than over 2% of the area under
consideration, blast cleaning to Sa 2 is required.
Miscellaneous Requirements
In addition to the process specifc requirements there
are also general requirements on the environmental
conditions. Blast cleaning and painting shall be carried out
at relative humidity of 85% and at surface temperatures
3C above the dew point. The dew point is the temperature
at which air is saturated with moisture. The conductivity
of soluble salts on the surface is measured in accordance
with ISO 8502-6 and ISO 8502-9, and compared with
the conductivity of 50 mg/m2 NaCl. If the measured
conductivity is less then or equal to the conductivity of
50 mg/m2 NaCl, then it is acceptable. All soluble salts
have a detrimental effect on coatings performance. ISO
8502-9:1998 does not provide the actual concentration
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of NaCl. The % NaCl in the total soluble salts will vary
from site to site. Minimum readings to be taken are one
reading per block/section/unit prior to applying.
Main Coating System
The coating system used is usually epoxy based with
light colour. Epoxy based systems are used exclusively
today, even though there are possibilities to qualify
alternative systems. The prequalifcation of the system
is documented by a Type Approval Certifcate (TAC).
There shall be a minimum of two stripe coats and two
spray coats, except that the second stripe coat, by way
of welded seams only, may be omitted if it is proven that
the NDFT can be met by the coats applied. Any reduction
in scope of the second stripe coat shall be fully detailed
in the CTF. Two stripe coats are applied prior to coating
of the water ballast tanks. Stripe coating is painting of
edges, welds, hard to reach areas, etc., to ensure good
paint adhesion and proper paint thickness in critical
areas. Stripe coats should be applied as a coherent flm
showing good flm formation and no visible defects. The
application method employed should insure that all areas
that require stripe coating are properly coated by brush or
roller. A roller may be used for scallops, ratholes etc., but
not for edges and welds.
Two coats are applied with a nominal dry flm thickness
(NDFT) of 320 m according to the 90/10 rule. 90/10
rule means that 90% of all thickness measurements
shall be greater than or equal to NDFT and none of the
remaining 10% measurements shall be below 0.9 x
NDFT.
Items of Importance in the IMO PSPC
Coatingsystemapproval(sect.5*)
AnInspectionAgreementtobeestablished(sect.3.2*,
also required earlier)
A Coating Technical File (CTF) shall be prepared
(sect.3*)
Coating inspection during coating preparation and
application(sect.6*)
Verifcation(sect.7*)
* Refers to the relevant section in the PSPC
Maintenance
IMO PSPC requires that all repair of the coating of the
water ballast tanks is recorded in the CTF. IMO is currently
preparing a guideline on how to carry out maintenance. It
is based on IACS Recommendation No. 87.
IMPLICATIONS FOR OSVS
The IMO PSPC has originally been conceived for large
oil tankers. Hence, it comes as no surprise that it is not
always straight forward to apply to Offshore Supply
Vessels. One item that is receiving particular attention is
the defnition of the seawater ballast tanks. IMO PSPC
applies to dedicated seawater ballast tanks. In many
cases OSVs have combined tanks that can also carry e.g.
drilling fuids. To clarify this matter, IACS has submitted a
unifed interpretation to the IMOs Sub-Committee on
Ship Design and Equipment at its 52nd session (DE52)
in March 2009 (2009a). Here IACS proposes that:
The following tanks are not considered to be dedicated
seawater ballast tanks and are therefore exempted from
the application and requirements of the IMO PSPC:
1. ballast tank identifed as Spaces included in Net
Tonnage in the 1969 ITC Certifcate;
2. seawater ballast tanks in passenger vessels also
designated for the carriage of grey water.
The proposal was considered at the DE 52. However,
it is not quite clear what was actually agreed upon at
the meeting (as of May 2009). A report by DE52 to the
maritime safety committee (2009b) states that the Sub-
Committee considered document DE 52/17/6 (2009a)
and, having supported the interpretation in principle,
agreed to take no further action on the matter. This
does not seem to give an accurate picture of what was
discussed. The report by the IACS representative present
at the DE52 meeting (2009c) states that the plenary
discussion was not very accurately documented in this
statement. It notes that a number of delegates opposed
the derogations (as they were seen) especially for grey
water tanks in passenger ships.
The IMO PSPC defnes a minimum quality standard
and it is quite possible to exceed these requirements if
desired. The coatings used for combined ballast tank are
known to be of higher quality than conventional corrosion
prevention coatings for seawater ballast tanks. However,
these coatings are not usually type approved according
IMO PSPC.
In the absence of an agreed interpretation, most OSVs
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are handled on a case by case basis where the status of
the ballast tanks is agreed upon with the Flagstate. This
is todays praxis in Norway and DNV.
MAIN IMPLICATIONS FOR DESIGNERS,
SHIPyARDS AND SHIP OWNERS
Consequences for Ship Designer
The application of IMO PSPC is usually considered a
production issue to be taken care of by the shipyard.
However, as mentioned in Section 3 General Principles,
subsection .3.2 of the IMO PSPC (2006), there are also
many opportunities already in the design phase of a
vessel to make coating friendly design that are easier to
produce and maintain. The main focus should be towards
reducing the length of free edges in ballast water tanks,
accessibility of the tanks and the avoidance of complex
joints within the ballast water tanks. Some of the ideas
suggested here require optimisation of ship structures as
changing frame spacing will lead to different scantlings
such as plate thickness.
Free edges need to be rounded to a 2mm radius which
can involve considerable manual work. By using fewer
stiffener and using profles that already have the correct
radius a considerable amount of time may be saved.
Accessibility is often a problem in many BWT. Hence
ensuring easy access not just for the painter but also their
equipment will increase the quality and effciency of the
surface preparation, coating application and required
quality control inspections.
By reducing the number of complex joints, the need
for NDT inspection and documentation will be reduced
considerably. Further reduction can be achieved by
using fewer stiffeners as discussed above. NDT coating
thickness inspection is manual task and therefore
designers can reduce the time spent on NDT inspection
by modifying their ship designs.
Consequences for Shipyard
There are a number of logistical and administrative
tasks for shipyards. While there are already shipyards, in
particular working for the offshore industry, that meet the
technical requirements, there are few that already have
suitable systems and procedures in place to meet the
PSPC requirements for documentation.
Shipyards are required to prepare the inspection
agreement, and the CTF. A frst draft of the CTF and the
inspection agreement is required for the plan approval.
There is usually a need to upgrade the shipyards
production system. Approved coating systems need
to be specifed, including compatible and approved
shop primers. More work needs to be done on surface
preparation with clear targets on cleanliness and surface
roughness. Furthermore, 2 stripe coats need to be
applied. In addition new coating halls may need to be
built and additional qualifed staff for coating is required,
including certifed coating inspectors.
Furthermore there are challenges regarding production
planning, workfow and material selection: How can
blocks be dimensioned to minimise congestion in the
paint shop? Furthermore, one should re-assess the
criteria for selecting coating systems to achieve the
fastest production throughput.
Consequences for Ship Owners
Ship owners will get an active role in maintaining the
CTF while the ship is sailing. There is a requirement
to maintain the CTF which has to be kept on board the
vessel (see sections 3.4.3 to 3.4.5 in (2006)). IMO is
fnalising a guideline on how this could be done. The CTF
shall be inspected by the Administration.
Standard paint specifcations of ship owners will have
to be adopted to make sure the coating system is type
approved. Another requirement is to provide Permanent
Means of Access (PMA) to facilitate inspection and
maintenance of the water ballast tanks (2008). The PMA
have to follow IMO PSPC for parts that are integral to
the ship structure.
These measures may lead to an increases of the initial
price of the vessel but is expected to result in reduced
maintenance costs and possibly enhanced resale value.
Furthermore, ship owners are better prepared for
evaluation by Vetting and Rating agencies.
CONCLUSIONS
IMO PSPC will affect the way OSVs are going to the
built. While there are still some uncertainties as to which
ballast tanks are to be include under the IMO PSPC it is
clear that both shipyards and owners will be affected by
the new requirements. While there are new requirements
on workmanship it seems that the requirements to
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document the coating process may turn out to be the
most demanding challenge. It was also pointed out that
there are opportunities to optimise ship designs to make
them more coating friendly and thus cheaper to produce
and operate.
REFERENCES
(2006) Resolution MSC.215(82) - Performance
Standard for Protective Coatings for dedicated
Seawater Ballast Tanks in all types of ships and
double-side skin spaces of bulk carriers. IN
COMMITTEE, M. S. (Ed. London, IMO.
(2008) MSC.1/Circ.1279 - Guidelines for corrosion
protection of permanent means of access
arrangements. London, IMO.
(2009a) DE 52/17/6 - Application of the Performance
standard for protective coatings (PSPC) to
tanks that are not dedicated solely to the
carriage of seawater ballast Submitted by
the International Association of Classifcation
Societies (IACS). Sub-Committee on Ship
Design and Equipment. London, IMO.
(2009b) DE 52/21 - Report to the Maritime Safety
Committee. Sub-Committee on Ship Design
and Equipment. London, IMO.
(2009c) IACS observers report on the 52nd session
of the sub-committee on Ship Design and
Equipment. London, IMO.
The subject paper was first published at the OSV
Singapore 2009 Conference.
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ABSTRACT
Recent major oil fnds in the Russia Arctic region has led to
a marked increase in exploration and production activities.
Russian Government and Russian oil companies have
invested heavily to make yearround export of oil and gas
from the Barents and Pechora Seas a reality. Lukoil, in
particular, is developing the Varandey terminal. Lukoil has
ordered one dedicated icebreaker and one icebreaking
standby/supply ship from Keppel Singmarine.
The dedicated icebreaker is capable of operating
independently in the ice conditions. Built to RMRS LL7
notation, its main function is to perform ice channeling
for tankers within the terminal area, assist in tanker
maneuvering, mooring and loading. On the other hand
the icebreaking standby/supply ship is capable of round
operation within the area of the offshore oil terminal
in the Barents and Arctic Seas. Built to RMRS LU 7
notation its main function is to perform ice channeling
at the terminal area and limited ice escort services at the
terminal area in the event that the icebreaker becomes
unavailable. Operating ambient air temperatures are in
the range +30C to 40 C. Both ships were built to
Clean Design standards. The paper describes some of
the challenges faced by the Builder during the design and
construction of the ships.
KEy WORDS: Russia; Icebreaker; Lukoil; RMRS, Keppel
Singmarine.
INTRODUCTION
The proven oil reserve in Russia is about 70 billion barrels
of which 10 billion barrels are located in the Barents and
Pechora Seas region. This region is ice-bound for more
Tan Chenghui
P. Eng, MSc, MRINA, FSNAMES
Research Consultant, KOMtech Marine Group
Design and Construction of Icebreakers
for Operation in Barents Sea
than 6 months a year. However, this has not deterred E
& P activities. The TimanPechora region contains more
than 100 onshore oil felds. To get the oil to export markets
the Russian Government and Russian oil companies have
invested heavily to make yearround access to icebound
oil terminals and yearround export of oil and gas from
the Barents and Pechora Seas a reality. Companies like
Lukoil and Gazprom have extensive development either
already in operation or in the advance planning stage.
Lukoil, in particular, is developing the Varandey Terminal
to handle some of the oil produced in the Varandey area.
To achieve this, Lukoil ordered two icebreakers (one
dedicated icebreaker and one icebreaking standby/supply
ship) from Keppel Singmarine and three 70,000 dwt oil
tankers of the double acting type from South Korea
shipbuilders.
Contract to build the two icebreaking vessels was
awarded to Keppel Singmarine in April 2006. The contract
was clinched amidst keen competition with European
and Finnish yards on the basis of Keppel Singmarines
strong track record in specialized shipbuilding as well as
in establishing strong and valuable partnerships with our
customers. Back in 2006 KOM was not yet established
and Keppel Singmarines competency in ice mechanics
was in its infancy. Keppel Singmarine had to partner ILS
Oy, a well known Finnish Consulting Naval Architecture
frm specializing in icebreaker design to strengthen our
bid.
At the time of contracts signing, Keppel Singmarine
was building two Ice-class Anchor Handling Tug/Supply
(AHTS) vessels for LUKOIL scheduled for delivery in the
frst and third quarters of 2007.
Together with the contracts signing, Keppel O&M
also signed a Co-operation Agreement with LUKOIL
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to consider potential newbuildings of offshore rigs,
special purpose offshore facilities and vessels to service
LUKOILs offshore oil terminals vessels at the Keppel
O&M shipyards.
OUTLINE REQUIREMENTS FOR VARANDEy
TERMINAL ICEBREAKER
The dedicated icebreaker is a special-purpose standby
and ice management vessel for year-round operations
within the area of the offshore oil terminal in the Barents
and Arctic Seas.
Function of the icebreaker is to provide year-round
operations at the offshore oil terminal in the Barents Sea
(Varandey Area, South-Eastern part of the Barents Sea)
including ice channeling for tankers within the terminal
area, assistance to the tanker in maneuvering, mooring,
loading operations at the terminal, performing rescue and
standby functions, frefghting capability, performing oil
spill response operations, supply functions, performing
underwater engineering and towing operations in the
prevailing ice conditions.
The vessel was designed and built in accordance with the
rules and under supervision of RMRS (Russian Maritime
Register of Shipping) including applicable Rules and
Regulations of the Russian Federation.
Vessel designed to make 3 knots continuous speed of
advance in 1.7m of level ice with 20cm snow cover and
capable of turning 180 in 3 minutes in 1.0 m of level
ice. Maximum ice thickness at the terminal can be
1.7m with consolidation approaching 3 to 4 m thickness
and 20m thick ridges. Vessel must be able to operate
independently in these ice conditions without assistance.
The terminal may be blocked or even surrounded with
grounded ice rubble/ridges. Vessel will be required to
perform ice management duties at the Terminal in order
to maintain an easy path for shuttle-tankers approach and
loading. Ice class must be not less than LL7 as per RMRS
classifcation.
Navigation area unrestricted.

Autonomy as per provision & fresh water supplies not
less than 60 days.

Autonomy as per fuel supplies not less than 30 days at
the normal 60% capacity level.
Automation extent according to A1 class as per RMRS
classifcation.
Vessel equipment and systems shall be designed for
water temperatures of + 20 to 2 C and air temperatures
of + 30 to 40 C.
Powerplant is of diesel - electrical configuration.
Powerplant capacity and propeller type were determined
during design stage in accordance with the requirements
of the classifcation society.
Vessel fitted with two azimuthing stern drives aft
and twin bow thrusters. Azimuthing stern propulsors
arrangement optimised for ice fushing operations. For
environmental concern, all oil tanks are independent of
vessel hull plating.
Loaded speed in deep waters at the 85% capacity of
the shaft power at force-two wave disturbance and
force-three wind not less than 15 knots. Draft suitable
for operations at the sea depth up to 17m. Freeboard
minimum 2.5m. Beam not less than 21m.
According to its purpose, the ice-breaker shall supply
the offshore terminal, and shall perform in particular the
following:
equipmentdelivery/removal;
freshwater&provisionsupply;
fuelsupply;
crewrotation;
liquid/soliddomestic&industrialwasteremoval.
Fuel Oil: 300m3 MGO/Diesel
Deck Area: about 500m2/500tonnes deck load
Deck arranged for transport and secure lashing of 20
containers and 10 containers
Fire fighting capacity class Fi-Fi-1 (as per DNV
notation).

Vessel arranged with hoisting area for helicopter
operations in accordance with International Chamber of
Shipping Guide.
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Special underwater hull painting using specially
formulated coating.
Systems of gathering, processing and transfer of hydro-
meteorological and ice information is provided.
Total domestic waste treatment on board the vessel is
provided.
Temporary accommodation of up to 30 persons during
rescue operations and frst-aid equipment is provided.
For oil spill response readiness, vessel is ftted with
one workboat, capable of towing oil boom (5tonnes
bollard pull). Vessel is provided with crane for launching
workboat, plumbing the hold and supporting oil spill
recovery efforts. Crane is able to support 3tonnes while
reaching maximum 5m outboard. Vessel has storage
for 500m
3
recovered fuids. Vessel provided with 20m
3

oil dispersant ftted with a spray system for dispersant
application from the both sides. Vessel provided with
oil spill response equipment booms, skimmers and hot
water and steam washing machines, etc.
The vessel is suitable for underwater operations in ice
conditions evidenced by the moonpool provided. The
vessel is equipped by stern towing arrangements to take
disabled tanker under tow.
The vessel is equipped by environmental equipment as
per Clean design with zero pollution level.
OUTLINE REQUIREMENTS FOR
VARANDEy TERMINAL ICE BREAKING
STANDBy/SUPPLy VESSEL
(requirements are generally similar to icebreakers except
for below)
Providing year-round operation of the offshore oil terminal
in the Barents sea (Varandey Area, South-Eastern part
of the Barents Sea) including assistance to the shuttle-
tankers in maneuvering, mooring, riding at the terminal,
performing rescue and emergency functions, frefghting
capabilities, performing oil spill response, supplying
provision and delivering crew members, performing
underwater engineering and towing operations.

The standby vessel shall be capable of maintaining ice
channel at the terminal area and shall be capable of
limited ice escort services at the terminal area should ice
management vessel become unavailable.
The ice class shall be LU7 as per RMRS classifcation.
The vessel shall be able to proceed through landfast ice
having an unbroken thickness of up to 1.5m with 20cm
snow cover with speed of between 2 to 3 knots.
Temporary accommodation of up to 12 persons during
rescue operations to be provided.
Although not provided with a moonpool, the vessel is
suitable for underwater operations by divers including in
ice conditions.
DESIGN PHILOSOPHy
Keppel Singmarine partnered ILS Oy to develop
the designs for the two ships to fulfl the owners
requirements so that the ships can operate successfully
in the arctic areas. The following main design criteria are
as follow:
Icebreaker Hull Form and Ice Resistance
Based on the owners requirement that the icebreaker
should meet RS Rules for LL7 notation and that the
breadth of the vessel should not be less than 21m and
also that the vessel should be able to break level ice of
1.7m thickness at a continuous speed of 3 knots, we
designed the ships hull to be the most optimum for
ice breaking duties and sea keeping characteristics.
Accordingly, a length of 100m was determined.
The hull form was designed so that the ice resistance
is smallest possible taking into consideration the multi-
purpose nature of the ships. The ice performance of
the ships has been designed so that the vessels can
effciently navigate in heavy ice at a speed of about 3
knots.
Roll damping is achieved by means of deep centreline
box keel (500mm deep by 1000mm wide). Traditional
bilge keels are not suitable for icebreakers.

Propulsion
More Power Greater fexibility: For such an icebreaker
to cut through 1.7m thick ice at a continuous speed of
3 knots the minimum propulsion power required is
about 17MW and the minimum diesel generator engine
power required is about 22 MW (our calculations had
been independently verifed by VTT (Finnish Technical
72
|
Research Centre)). Any power less than this, although
able to meet the (less stringent) RS rules for LL7 ice
breaking class notation, would not be able meet all the
requirements set by the owners. A smaller vessel and
a smaller power plant could result in the icebreaker, if
trapped in ice, to be unable to break out. (Note: RS rules
for LL7 notation require a minimum propulsion power
of only 11 MW). The technical specifcation also called
for an open water speed of 15 knots. Extra care had to
be taken when designing the propellers to meet the
opposing requirements of icebreaking at low speed and
transiting open water at high speed. See Shaft Power-
Speed curve below.
Bollard Pull
Adequate bollard pull is an important feature of icebreaking
ships therefore in addition to providing adequate
propulsion power we have settled for relatively large
propeller diameters and high over-torque characteristics
of the propulsion systems. See Ice thickness-Ship speed
curve below. When recommending a required bollard pull
of 190tonnes, ILS has taken into account a 1 knot margin.
From commercial and other technical considerations,
Keppel Singmarine opted for a design bollard pull of 180
tonnes.
Figure 1: Shaft Power-Speed Curve

Figure 2: Ice Thickness vs. Ship Speed
|
73
Over-Torque
Higher Over-torque Better Performance at Breaking
Ice: Present day ice breakers are almost always of the
diesel electric confguration. Diesel-electric confguration
allows for better power management so that best
possible system automation and redundancy can be
achieved. All main diesel engines have their own cooling
and fuel systems to ensure suffcient redundancy. It is
also the icebreaker operators standard to provide for
over-torque capability. Our design allows for 40% over-
torque capability. Without any over-torque capability,
once the propeller stalls during ice breaking duties the
main generator engines will stall leading to dangerous
consequences. The chosen 40% electric motor over-
torque adds considerably to the ships price but is the
only sure way to make the ships operate successfully in
heavy ice conditions. See below for Torque curve
Larger Fuel Tank Capacity
Connected with the higher power proposed by us, the
fuel oil capacity had to be increased proportionally. A ship
which is smaller than the one proposed by us would not
have enough space to accommodate the autonomy of
fuel supplies as stipulated by the owners requirement.
Also, for added protection from accidental oil spills, fuel
tanks were located inboard of double side and double
bottom spaces. This is especially important in the fragile
Arctic environment.
28 Technology Review 2009
torque adds considerably to the ships price but is the
only sure way to make the ships operate successfully in
heavy ice conditions. See Figure 3 for Torque curve.
larger fuel tank capacity
Connected with the higher power proposed by us, the
fuel oil capacity had to be increased proportionally.
A ship which is smaller than the one proposed by us
would not have enough space to accommodate the
autonomy of fuel supplies as stipulated by the owners
requirement. Also, for added protection from accidental
oil spills, fuel tanks were located inboard of double side
and double bottom spaces. This is especially important
in the fragile Arctic environment.
over-torque
Higher over-torque Better Performance at Breaking
ice: Present day ice breakers are almost always of the
diesel electric confguration. Diesel-electric confguration
allows for better power management so that best possible
system automation and redundancy can be achieved.
All main diesel engines have their own cooling and
fuel systems to ensure suffcient redundancy. it is also
the icebreaker operators standard to provide for over-
torque capability. our design allows for 40% over-
torque capability. Without any over-torque capability,
once the propeller stalls during ice breaking duties the
main generator engines will stall leading to dangerous
consequences. The chosen 40% electric motor over-
Figure 3. Torque Curve
*Reverse rotation Motor output Propeller shaft Unit
max. rpm 330 70 rpm
max. torque 61 282 kNm
Motor output Propeller shaft Unit
Constant torque area 0...660 0...139 rpm
max power 8400 8195 kW
nominal torque 121 563 kNm
max. torque 170 788 kNm
Field weakening area 660...840 139...178 rpm
max power 8400 8195 kW
Bollard pull 677 143 rpm A
Propulsor input RPM
feld weakening max. speed
nominal speed
nominal torque
max torque
Propulsor input torque
max reverse speed
max. reverse torque
Figure 3: Torque Curve
74
|
Outftting
The icebreaker is provided with adequate equipment for
working in the harsh arctic environment. For example the
following details are provided:
The vessels towing arrangement is designed
with very high power winches with auto mooring
capability.
The vessel is provided with two bow thrusters
assuring the successful operation in heavy conditions
and also secures the redundancy of the navigation
with joy-stick steering near the oil terminal and in
rescue operations.

Heating of accommodation areas through dual
channel heated ventilation system. The central
heating of the ventilation air is arranged with steam
boiler. Additional redundancy is arranged with
electrical heating radiators in each accommodation
space that is adjacent to external bulkheads. Insulation
of all spaces is designed for low temperature
operation. Generally the thickness of rock wool
insulation in the accommodation area is 150mm.
Special attention is paid to insulation arrangement
so that the condensation is avoided in +35 to -45 C
outside temperatures. The cool bridges are built so
that decks, bulkheads etc have a minimum 500mm
breadth insulation bridge. Double glass thermo
windows and additional winter glasses are installed in
all cabin and service space windows. The navigation
bridge windows have additionally electrical defrost
heating and warm air blowers.
Model Tests
VTT (Finnish Technical Research Centre) towing tank
and Helsinki Technical University ice basin facilities were
selected by us for their independence and impartiality to
carry out resistance and propulsion and ice model tests.
Model tests in ice were carried out with 2 ice
thicknesses, namely 1.0m and 1.7m. For the 1.0m ice
sheet, the following tests were carried out: propulsion
and resistance tests ahead and astern and breaking out of
channel tests. For the 1.7m ice sheet, the following tests
were carried out: propulsion and resistance tests ahead.
Other tests carried out included ridge penetration test
and ice rubble/channel penetration tests.
Model tests in open water as follows: resistance,
Model tests in open water as follows: resistance, propeller,
thruster, self propulsion, overload propulsion, bollard
pull, ow visualisation and wakeeld tests.
Eg^cX^eVa9^bZch^dch
The hull form design and propulsion design were
rened in accordance with the test results obtained.
The nal principal parameters of the icebreaker are
given in Table 1.
JWXb['$ Fh_dY_fWbfWhWc[j[hi
FWhWc[j[h LWbk[
Le:ql 0/ :l 1OOO
Le:ql L\L :l 'ZO
D:e~ol :ouoeo :l Z1
D:e~ol L\L :l Z1O
Dejl :ouoeo lo :~i: oec :l 1oo
D:~uql oesiq: :l 1O
C:ew je:so:sl Z8
De~oweiql lo::esl o,1O
Do~:o Pu lo::esl 18O
0je: w~le: sjeeo :olsl 1
M~i: oiese e:qi:es \l / x ,oO
/.i:ul sle::l l:usle:s M\l Z x 8/
Dow sioe l:usle:s \l Z x 8OO \
Eecl:ic~ vol~qe oo\///O\/ZoO\ oO.
EgZY^Xi^dchkh#6XijVaBZVhjgZbZcih
Open water speed and bollard pull as predicted
by VTT/Helsinki University was 16.6 knots and
172.5 tonnes. Actual measured open water speed and
bollard pull carried out on completion of vessel in
Singapore was 16.1 knots and 178.4 tonnes respectively.
Predicted ship speed in 1.7m level ice with 20cm snow
cover is 3.2 knots (contractual speed is 3 knots).
Gjhh^Vc;aV\
As the icebreaker had to y the Russian ag, she had
to be designed to comply with the Russian Labour
Protection Management System rules and Russian
Sanitary and Epidemiological rules. These rules are
parallel to the more commonly used SOLAS, IMO and
ILO regulations however the Russian rules are more
stringent than IMO/ILO rules especially in the matter
of noise level, vibration level, head room, ergonomics,
electromagnetic radiation level, ease of maintenance of
equipment, etc.
9Zh^\cVcY8dchigjXi^dcd[>XZWgZV`Zgh
[dgDeZgVi^dc^c7VgZcihHZV (/
Djiii^c\
The icebreaker is provided with adequate equipment
for working in the harsh Arctic environment. The
following details are provided:
The vessel's towing arrangement is designed with
very high power winches with auto mooring capability.
The vessel is provided with two bow thrusters
assuring the successful operation in heavy conditions
and also secures the redundancy of the navigation
with joy-stick steering near the oil terminal and in
rescue operations.
Heating of accommodation areas through dual
channel heated ventilation system. The central
heating of the ventilation air is arranged with
steam boiler. Additional redundancy is arranged
with electrical heating radiators in each
accommodation space that is adjacent to external
bulkheads. Insulation of all spaces is designed for
low temperature operation. Generally, the thickness
of rock wool insulation in the accommodation
area is 150mm. Special attention is paid to
insulation arrangement so that the condensation is
avoided in -45C to +35 C outside temperatures.
The cool bridges are built so that decks, bulkheads
etc have a minimum 500mm breadth insulation
bridge. Double glass thermo windows and
additional winter glasses are installed in all cabin
and service space windows. The navigation bridge
windows have additional electrical defrost heating
and warm air blowers.
BdYZaIZhih
VTT (Finnish Technical Research Centre) towing tank
and Helsinki Technical University ice basin facilities
were selected to carry out resistance and propulsion
and ice model tests due to their independence and
impartiality.
Model tests in ice were carried out with two ice
thicknesses, namely 1.0m and 1.7m. For the 1.0m ice
sheet, the following tests were carried out: propulsion
and resistance tests ahead and astern and breaking out of
channel tests. For the 1.7m ice sheet, the following tests
were carried out: propulsion and resistance tests ahead.
Other tests carried out included ridge penetration test
and ice rubble/channel penetration tests.
propeller, thruster, self propulsion, overload propulsion,
bollard pull, fow visualization and wakefeld tests.
Principal Dimensions
The hull form design and propulsion design were refned
in accordance with the test results obtained. The fnal
main dimensions of the icebreaker were determined as
follows:
Table 1: Principal Parameters

Predictions vs. Actual Measurements
Open water speed and bollard pull as predicted by VTT/
Helsinki University was 16.6 knots and 172.5 tonnes.
Actual measured open water speed and bollard pull
carried out on completion of vessel in Singapore was
16.1 knots and 178.4 tonnes respectively. Predicted ship
speed in 1.7m level ice with 20cm snow cover is 3.2
knots (contractual speed is 3 knots).
Russian Flag
As the icebreaker had to fy the Russian fag she had to be
designed to comply with the Russian Labour Protection
Management System rules and Russian Sanitary and
Epidemiological rules. These rules are parallel to the
more commonly used SOLAS, IMO and ILO regulations
however the Russian rules are more stringent than IMO/
ILO rules especially in the matter of noise level, vibration
level, head room, ergonomics, electromagnetic radiation
level, ease of maintenance of equipment, etc.
Other Special Features
The icebreaker has to comply with RS two-
compartment damage stability criteria.
|
75
Navigationbridgelayoutwasdesignedwiththehelp
of experienced Finnish icebreaker captain and Lukoils
own master mariners.
Powerfulsearchlightsandnightvisionequipmentare
provided.
DetailedFiniteElementanalysisinwayofazimuthing
thrusters. In the event of grounding in way of the stern
thrusters, the stern thrusters are designed to break in
such a way that water ingress into the hull will be kept
to an absolute minimum.
Ship side and bottom painted with Inerta 160
coating solvent free epoxy (500) specially designed
for ice operations.
The scavenging air inlet blowers have thermostat
controlled steam heaters.
Thebowthrusterroomventilationinletairisarranged
with steam heaters and the ventilation starts
automatically only when the pump is started.
Thevesselisprovidedwithtwomainseawaterinlets,
one of which will be an ice sea chest. One additional
sea chest is arranged for fre extinguishing and fre
fghting pumps. All sea chests are provided with
pressure air and steam connections for ice freeing
purposes.
Oneoftheballasttanksisarrangedtobeusedasa
machinery cooling water tank.

Becauseoftheextremelowambienttemperaturethe
ships ballast, Heavy Fuel Oil, Sludge oil, Bilge water,
lube oil storage, used lube oil storage and waste water
tanks are all arranged with steam heating coils.
CHALLENGES
From a strength viewpoint the most challenging issues
are:
ThepredominantuseofhightensilestrengthE500
steel in the ships hulls.
The heavy stem bars and azimuth thruster rider
plates.
Largesizebulbplates.
Sourcing for E500 grade steel plates, selection of
appropriate welding consumables, getting class
approval for welding procedures.
The fabrication of the propulsion thruster
foundations.
In-situ machining of the thruster foundation top
plates.
Coldbendingoftheheavybulbplates.
Liftingofthegrandassemblyofthesternblocks
(incorporating the azimuthing thruster foundations)
and erecting the grand assembly. The massive
structure necessitated the use of a heavy lift foating
crane.
The high loads (due to very heavy hull scantlings)
placed on the slipways. Prior to erecting the blocks on
the slipway, the slipway had to be locally strengthened
by piles.
Thelaunchingofthevesselsarepointsofconcern.
The hollow ends of the ship meant that we had to
ft external buoyancy tanks to help the ships foat off
without damage.
Theshallowwaterdeptharoundouryardalsoposed
a big challenge to us. We had to retain the external
buoyancy tanks until the last moment when the ships
entered our VLCC docks for fnal bottom painting
job and getting the ships ready for offcial sea trials.
Without the external buoyancy tanks the ships were
foating at drafts in excess of 8m. Even with VLCC
docks we had to carefully choose the right moment
(highest tide) to undock the ships.
76
|
The steel weight for H327 is 2175 tonnes and for H328 is
3440 tonnes. The deadweight for H327 is 1500 tonnes
and for H328 is 3150 tonnes. If lower grade steel, say,
EH32 had been used in lieu of E500, the reduction in
deadweight would be about 250 tonnes and 400 tonnes
for H327 and H328 respectively.
Prior to commencement of ship construction, successful
extensive ice model testing was carried out to confrm
hullice interaction, ship speed in level ice, breaking
out of channel, turning circle, ridge penetration, bollard
pull test and propeller tests etc. For any yard embarking
on building icebreakers for the very first time, the
preliminary testing stage and good planning cannot be
over emphasized.
6JI=DGH8DCI68I:8]Zc\=j^#IVc5`ZeeZah^c\bVg^cZ#Xdb
TabIe 2. Estimated net quantity cf E500 steeI fcr R328
5lNc Tbickness Net quantity Net quantity Purcbased quantity
Imm! Im
2
! Itcnnes! IBased cn 30' x 8' size, incIude 20% cffcut wastages!
& &+ '). (&#( &)
' &-#* ,)) &%-#% )%
( '( .*% &,&#* *'
) ', .&) &.(#, *%
* (%#* ,*+ &-&#% )&
+ (,#* )*#) &(#) (
, ),#* (#' &#' &
,%%
Imm! Im
2
& &) '). ',#) &)
' &+ +&& ,+#, ((
( '% )*) ,&#( '*
) '& &,) '-#, &%
* ') (+& +-#% '%
+ '* *-( &&)#) ('
, ', &-% (-#' &%
- (* ,+ '%#. *
. )'#* (#' &#& &
)),
8DC8AJH>DC
The icebreaking AHTS and the icebreaker were
delivered to the owners in August and December 2008
respectively. Both ships are already in operation in the
Varandey terminal in ice covered seas. Full scale ice trials
are scheduled for April/May 2009. Keppel Singmarine
personnel are making plans to participate in the full
scale ice trials.
KOMtech will leverage on the authors experience as well
as the development of the two icebreakers to embark on
future research projects related to the Arctic.
[dgDeZgVi^dc^c7VgZcihHZV 31
Table 2: Estimated Net Quantity of E500 Steel for H328
Table 3: Estimated Net Quantity of E500 Steel for H327
6JI=DGH8DCI68I:8]Zc\=j^#IVc5`ZeeZah^c\bVg^cZ#Xdb
Imm! Im
2
& &+ '). (&#( &)
' &-#* ,)) &%-#% )%
( '( .*% &,&#* *'
) ', .&) &.(#, *%
* (%#* ,*+ &-&#% )&
+ (,#* )*#) &(#) (
, ),#* (#' &#' &
,%%
Imm! Im
2
& &) '). ',#) &)
' &+ +&& ,+#, ((
( '% )*) ,&#( '*
) '& &,) '-#, &%
* ') (+& +-#% '%
+ '* *-( &&)#) ('
, ', &-% (-#' &%
- (* ,+ '%#. *
. )'#* (#' &#& &
)),
8DC8AJH>DC
personnel are making plans to participate in the full
scale ice trials.
KOMtech will leverage on the authors experience as well
as the development of the two icebreakers to embark on
future research projects related to the Arctic.
[dgDeZgVi^dc^c7VgZcihHZV 31
CONCLUSION
personnel are making plans to participate in the full scale
ice trials.
This paper is featured in this Journal courtesy of Keppel
Offshore & Marine Technology Centre (KOMtech). This
paper also appears in Technology Review 2009.
|
77
Keeping Records & Calibration: There Are Savings
to be Made When Implemented Wisely
KEEPING RECORDS
you may be keeping more records than required by
ISO9001! Removing the more not only save you
money but also eliminate bother while increasing the
productivity of your people.
Take a stroll to any offce or workplace and see the
evidence all around you. The records are occupying
space that you pay rent for, occupying your peoples
time doing work that customers do not pay you to do
and contributing to clutter and posing a fre hazard!

My frst experience with keeping records for no useful
purpose was at the Singapore Polytechnic. I discovered a
100 square metres basement room flled with rows upon
rows of 4-drawer cabinets. In them were the attendance
registers of students of the previous 20 years. The staff
member who kept the records was most adamant that
the registers must be kept, because we have always
kept them. I challenged him to fnd me the policy,
directive or regulation that required him to do so he
could not. I asked him, Has anyone ever asked him
to produce one of the registers? He told me, Many
years ago, a student was charged in court for a crime.
He pleaded innocence claiming that he was in class at
the time. Luckily for him, I had the attendance register
to back his claim and he was found not guilty! Despite
this, I got him to destroy the registers and surrender the
much needed space. I explained to him that it is not the
Singapore Polytechnics responsibility to keep records for
the courts or anybody else!

During the course of my audits, I have come across many
cases of money (in terms of time and storage space)
wasted in keeping records. Here are just 3 cases that I
like to share:
a) 20 years of records of items issued by a store. These
could have been destroyed after annual inventory
checks are conducted, discrepancies resolved and
closed.
b) 3 clerks assigned to fle records of tools borrowed
by workers of subcontractors. Even if the loans are
justifed, the tools could have been issued in bulk
to the subcontractors who in turn could be held
accountable for their loss or damage.

c) Sets of drawings, specifcations, reference sheets,
purchase orders, minutes, notes, chits, test results
and other paperwork and email correspondences
with owners, class and suppliers related to repairs
done for ships that had sailed many years ago. Each
set could have been destroyed when the repair report
was accepted by the ship owner and the repair bill
paid. The items were kept by a ship repair manager
and many were obsolete!
Do you get paid by customers for keeping voluminous
records? If yes, do keep more records (like archiving
storage companies). Its no for most companies.
Keeping records adds to your business cost. Keeping
records penalises you with non-conformances (e.g.
missing/hard to retrieve/illegible/damaged records) and
demoralises those having to keep them!
ISO9001:2008 requirement 4.2.4 does NOT require
you to keep ALL records only those needed to
provide evidence of conformity to requirements
of applicable regulations, your customers, your products
and your processes.

Cheng Huang Leng
B. Sc, MSc
Fellow, SNAMES
78
|
Go to:
http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/management_
standards/iso_9000_iso_14000/iso_9001_2008.htm
and you will fnd that there are only 15 clauses & sub-
clauses that require you to maintain records, if you DO
NOT do design, and 20 if you do! As for the requirements
of regulations, customers, your products, etc, you should
know what they are.
ISO9001 requires you to have a procedure to defne
the controls for your records. And controls means
identification, storage, protection, retrieval,
retention time and disposition of records. The
simplest way to comply is to maintain a master list of
records and with these controls defned for each
record in the list:
Identifcation name of record (e.g. management
review minutes) is enough. No need to give each record a
unique number (unless you are in the business of keeping
records).
Storage say where (e.g. folder name if hardcopy and
directory if softcopy) and if offsite, say, where
Protection specify (where necessary) how you will
protect hardcopy records from damage (e.g. by fre, water
and from being eaten by rats), unauthorised access and
theft. And for softcopy records how you protect them
against computer virus and loss of data. Handwritten
records are allowed provided the handwriting is legible
and the ink will not fade in time!

Retrieval Storage and fling of records should be such
that they could be retrieved easily by others who need
them and not only the keeper! It helps if the records are
not locked away, the folder stems are labelled, the fling
method is specifed (e.g. fle by date, customer name,
PO number etc.) and an index is provided. (Those going
for the Deming Prize must be able to retrieve any record
asked for in 3 seconds! This prize is probably the 2nd
toughest quality award in the World; the toughest is the
Japan Prize).
Retention time this depends on what the regulations
applicable to your products and processes and the
contractual requirements of your customers. If both says,
nothing see paragraph on how to save money.
Disposition say how you would get rid of obsolete
(when retention time expires) records e.g. recycle, sell,
throw, burn or shred. Make sure that sensitive records are
disposed without violating customer (e.g. confdentiality)
requirements.
Who to do the above tasks? you MUST assign
responsibilities if you are serious about keeping records
and want to avoid trouble with them.
How to save money?
1. Keep as few records as you can get away with. you
do so by going through your existing master list of
records and start deleting records that are NOT
required by ISO9001, regulations and customers.
2. Next, you delete records that you did not ask for
yourself or serve no useful purpose! Many would
keep records, Just in case I (or others) need to refer
to them. Do ask them, When was the last time
that happened? They are likely to be stumped for an
answer. What would happen if your external auditor
asks for a record that you have already destroyed
because its obsolete? Tell him too bad and offer
him other forms of evidence (e.g. results, the real
thing, show/demo and alibi) if necessary and/or
available.
3. For records that you must keep, set the retention time
to what the regulations and/or customers require of
you. If both are silent, try to set the retention time to
the shortest possible time e.g. 24 hours and if you are
honest with yourself, most hardcopy records could
be destroyed immediately after the data is captured
in your IT system thus eliminate the need to fle!
Some records should be kept long enough so that
the data they contain can be analysed with a view to
effect improvement or to be able to take corrective
action retrospectively. Audit records are typically
kept for 3 years so that the MR can analyse them to
identify adverse trends for timely preventive action.
Test records (e.g. for cars) are kept fairly long (and
in computers) so that those with defects (discovered
later) could be recalled for corrective action. you can
defne the retention time for a specifc set of records
e.g. for ship repair, its OK to set the retention time
of the repair reports to 7 days after the repair bill is
settled.
4. Keep ONLy ONE SET of records and the person
assigned and defned in the master list of records
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79
should do it. All other sets (or copies) are for others to
use and may be destroyed immediately after use. A
typical design offce would issue for construction 20
sets of drawings to the various trades in a shipyard.
There is no reason for any user to keep any of them
after the drawings are used.

5. That softcopy (kept in your computer system) could
be that ONE SET of records to keep. Make sure that
its backed up. How often (daily, weekly, monthly?)
depends on the volume of your transactions. The
volume equals the effort and cost of re-keying the
data if you computer crash! Caution: Store the back
up media (tape/portable hard disk/thumb drive) away
from the server room to minimise risk due to fre.
One lady boss I know goes home each day with her
disk drive in her handbag! you can then destroy all
hardcopies thus freeing valuable space, eliminating
unproductive work and removing a fre hazard.
CALIBRATION
you will realise savings if you calibrate only what is
needed WITHOUT violating ISO9001!
Most companies incur a lot more money on calibration
than required because they calibrate measuring
equipment that are:
a) NOT required by the laws of nature, or
b) NOT required by ISO9001 and
c) When required, they over kill!
Here are 5 typical situations I come across during my
audits:
NOT required by the laws of nature: calibrating equipment
whose property (and hence accuracy) will not change
e.g. standard gage sets and dead weights. Both have
NO moving parts, will not wear with time and unless they
are chipped or deformed deliberately, they will give the
same readings for the next 1,000 years!

1. NOT required by ISO9001: calibrating all monitoring
and measuring equipment when you need only
calibrate those needed to provide evidence of
conformity of product to determined requirements.
E.g. In ship repair, you need to prove that the
renewed plates and pipes are of the required grade
and thickness, that there are no weld defects and
that there is no leak. Dimensions are important but
accuracy is NOT important. Hence, there is no need
to calibrate your measuring tapes and protractors. In
machinery repair, you need to prove that the functions
of a repaired pump are restored, there is no leak, and
there is no excessive vibration, unusual noise and heat.
you do NOT need to calibrate the discharge pressure
gage, venier used to measure the dimensions of the
new shaft, balancing machine used to balance the
rotor blades and the multi-meter used to confrm
that the insulation of the renewed motor windings
UNLESS restoration to a discharge pressure, vibration
and quality of insulation were specifed as customer
requirements.

Examples of over-kill:
you may be calibrating equipment that need only be
checked. E.g. steel measuring tapes/rulers and glass
thermometers. Will a measuring tape become longer
with time and/or frequent use? Not that I know of! It
will become shorter if there is a kink (if it got twisted
and bent) in the tape. you should of course check its
condition before use and replace it if damaged or if
the markings defaced! A glass thermometer will give
consistent readings from the day it was made unless
the glass ware is damaged! If you suspect that it is
giving you inaccurate readings, you can do a quick
verifcation stick it in ice, your mouth and in boiling
water. It should read 0, 37 and 100 degrees centigrade
respectively. If not, its time to throw the thermometer
into your trash bin!
you may be calibrating equipment used as indicators,
e.g. a multi-meter that is used to fnd out whether
a circuit is open or closed. you only need to check
whether that the multi-meter is functioning correctly
i.e. will show zero ohms when the terminals are
shorted. Note that you need to check only prior to
use and not periodically.
2. you may be calibrating more often than needed.
Most do it annually. Why not weekly, monthly or
every 3 years? Remember that we should calibrate
measuring equipment when its accuracy is suspect.
Thus the frequency of calibration should be linked
to how likely the equipment will lose its accuracy.
It will if it has moving parts that wear, stick, rust,
deform or deteriorate AND if it is mishandled. I
have seen micrometers being used by workers with
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greasy fngers and who threw (instead of placed)
them after use and onto hard dirty surfaces. Thus if
your micrometer is used every day and in a hostile
environment, you may have to calibrate it weekly.
On the other hand, if the micrometer is used once
a month and is treated with tender loving care and
stored in a clean and dry (need not be cool) place,
then you may need to calibrate it once every 3 years
or longer! One objective way to justify your decision
to extend the calibration period is this. Compare the
latest calibrated results with the previous calibration
results. If the readings are almost similar and within
the accuracy of your application (see next example),
then you know that the accuracy of your equipment
has not changed signifcantly (we call this drift).
you can double your calibration period. you should
challenge your auditor if he does not accept your
justifcation!
3. you may have specifed the accuracy requirement
as to manufacturers standard. Its like servicing
your car every 5,000 km as recommended by the car
maker. you certainly need NOT if your car is driven
in clean Singapore (I do mine only after 20,000 km
or when the engine oil is dirty). you certainly should
service it more often if you drive your car in sandy
Saudi Arabia. Calibrating to a higher accuracy attracts
higher costs because more accurate and expensive
equipment would be needed to calibrate your
equipment. The accuracy to which your equipment is
to be calibrated should be related to your application.
E.g. your pressure gage is used to set the lifting
pressure of relief valves. If the typical relief pressure is
100 bars +/- 5 bars, then +/- 5 bars will be the accuracy
required. If you follow the makers standard, it will
probably be +/-0.5 bar (i.e. 10 times more accurate
than needed).
4. you may be sending your equipment for external
calibration when you could calibrate it yourself in-
house. For the above pressure gage example, get a
pressure gage that has a range of up to 200 bars and
one that you can read down to 0.5 bars i.e. one that has
a large face! This gage shall be called the master
and should be externally calibrated. (Caution: Make
sure that the calibration certifcate issued indicates
that the calibration equipment used could be traced
to international or national measurement standards.
Frequency of calibration to be dependent on how often
you use it to calibrate your other pressure gages.) you
can then calibrate your pressure gage by comparing
readings with the master gage for the same applied
pressure. you should apply pressure increasingly in
steps of 20 bars and then decreasingly. you must
record the results which will serve as your calibration
record.
5. you may have inadvertently thrown away equipment
whose required accuracy limits were violated BUT
for measurements OUTSIDE your measuring range.
E.g. If your pressure gage has a range from 0 1,000
bars AND you require to use it to measure pressures
typically between 200 300 bars, then that gage
need to be accurate between 200 300 bars. If the
gage is NOT accurate for measurements between 0
- 200 bars and 300 1,000 bars, it does not matter!
you should of course stick a note on the gage to alert
users that gage is accurate from 200 300 bars
only.
If you still got doubts about keeping records or calibration;
pose your questions to chenghuangleng@gmail.com. I
will respond, though not always immediately. My answers
will be FREE.
Cheng Huang Leng was a Colombo Plan scholar and
a B.Sc. and M.Sc. graduate of Newcastle University,
UK in 1970 and 1971 respectively. He taught marine
engineering at the Singapore Polytechnic before joining
Singapore Technologies to help develop its people and it
subsidiaries to establish Quality Management Systems.
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81
Diesel pest is not a new disease, nor is it a new
problem, but harsh reality with potentially dangerous
consequences.

The term diesel pest is used to describe a phenomenon
which is often only recognised once it is too late, when
blocked flters have interrupted the fow of fuel and the
engine has come to a standstill.

Laymen may explain away the slimy, indefinable
congestion with poor-quality fuel or a variety of other
possible causes, and then get down to the time-
consuming and tedious chore of changing the flter
elements yet again.
A clean flter will enable the engine to start running again,
but it has not eliminated the root cause; it is only a matter
of time until the damage manifests into a more serious
and more expensive problem.
Let us take a closer look at this issue:
1. What is DIESEL PEST?
2. The consequences and possible damage
3. Solutions ineffective and effective
1. DIESEL PEST
Every time a ship refuels, the ships operators run a
certain risk of contracting diesel pest, which is a microbial
contamination of oil and fuel. This contamination can
occur because any type of fuel (diesel, gas, fuel oil,
and also petrol, kerosene, naphtha and other middle
distillates) can contain the micro-organisms depicted in
Figure 1 (bacteria, yeasts and fungi).
Although it has been known for more than 25 years that
micro organisms can contaminate fuel and oil, very few
Diesel Pest: A New Disease?
Ing. Eberhard Runge
Senior Consultant, Project Engineer
MAHLE Industriefltration GmbH
petroleum industry service laboratories are in a position

to provide informa tion about this potential hazard.
As early as 1971, the Navy Research Laboratory in
Washington identifed micro-organisms as a key source of
contamination and subsequent service disruption. Quality
testing on diesel fuel samples was standardised by the IP
Code of Practice for testing the microbial content in light
distilled fuels (IP 386/88). A working group set up by the
Institute of Petroleum published a standard guide entitled
Guidelines for the investigation of microbial content of
distillate fuels (5.1.94).
The SGS limits can be viewed as threshold values for
microbial contamination. The total number of micro-
organisms is limited to < 3x103/l, which is a value lower
than that applied to drinking water. But in practice, even
contamination this low can lead to serious problems, a
fact that has been substantiated by experts.
While it has been known for a long time that micro-
organisms can contaminate diesel fuels, the actual
facts are not widely available, leaving one with the
Figure 1: Micro-organisms
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suspicion that the awareness of the microbial problem
has been kept quiet in order to avoid any claims for
damages and compensation. Nobody wants to have to
assume responsibility for ensuring microbe-free quality.
To this day, microbial purity is not a quality criterion in
petroleum delivery standards! Because the problem can
be so serious, it is essential that the issue of microbial
contamination is no longer concealed: it needs to become
common knowledge.
Microbiological tests must be established as routine
procedures when filters are blocked or there are
unexplained sludge deposits and signs of unusual wear.
This also applies to petroleum storage facilities along
the entire retail chain: from oil refnery storage tanks to
tankers.
2. THE CONSEQUENCES AND POSSIBLE
DAMAGE
While blocked flters are an annoyance, and expensive
and time-consuming to clear, they are the mildest form
of damage.
Microbial corrosion can cause much more severe
damage, potentially even putting the ship and its crew at
risk. The corrosion is not caused by the direct interaction
between bacteria and metal; the real culprits are the by-
products of bacterial metabolism.
The corrosive attack caused by fungi follows the same
general pattern: the fungi excrete organic and inorganic
acids along with other metabolism by-products, and
these trigger the corrosion process.
Figure 2 shows the damage to the surface of a ships tank
caused by microbial contamination. In this particular case,
by the time the contamination was detected, the tanks
were severely corroded to the point of perforation.
A comprehensive study lists the most commonly
occurring damage, in order of frequency:
1. Filter and separation problems
2. Engine corrosion
3. Damage to bearings
4. Damaged injection pumps and nozzles
5. Burst engine parts
6. Corroded turbine blades
7. General symptoms of corrosion
3. SOLUTIONS INEFFECTIVE AND
EFFECTIVE
To determine which solutions are effective, and which
are ineffective, we need to take a closer look at the
micro-organisms and the environments in which they
thrive. To reproduce and multiply, micro-organisms need
two key parameters: water and a substrate. Because
they are organic substances, fuels and mineral oils act
as substrates for micro-organisms. Once you have this
substrate, the only factor limiting microbial growth is
water or the water concentration in fuel or mineral oil.
Older research put the limit for microbial growth at <
100ppm free, i.e. unbound water; however, more recent
tests have shown that microbial growth only stops at
a content of < 60ppm water in diesel and other types
of fuel. At this level, the remaining water is dissolved
(solubility 70ppm) and the aw value is lower than that
necessary for microbial growth (unbound water).
The most effective solution is very simple: less than
60ppm unbound water! Both the delivery specifcations
of the petroleum industry and the technical specifcations
of the German Federal Armed Forces permit 100ppm
free water.
This is a list of the equipment and systems currently
available which do not provide the necessary results,
although several of these systems are regrettably
well established on the market and particularly in
shipbuilding:
1. Mechanical separators are not able to provide
suffcient separation of unbound water, although
Figure 2: Surface corrosion of a ships tank

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83
the fltration perform ance is good enough to remove
solids.
2. Filter systems in general, and installed as stand-alone
systems, are not effective enough to separate the
water.
3. Most commercially available systems which claim
to flter and separate, and which are advertised as
providing 100% water separation, lure shipbuilders
into purchasing a cheap solution which does not
function as promised. The advertising claim that these
systems deliver 100% water separation is based on a
DIN standard measured according to the Karl Fischer
titration method, which in the past gave 1000ppm
water and now 500ppm residual water content
perfect conditions for micro-organisms!
4. Permanent magnets are sold to combat Diesel
Pest, but unfortunately these fail to live up to the
claims the manufac turers make. If these magnets
are installed in front of a flter, the operator may gain
the impression that it is effective. However, this
impression is misleading because all that hap pens
is that the micro-organisms are torn apart as they
pass the magnet due to their polar structure, which
allows them to pass through a standard flter. What it
does not do is combat the real problem, which is the
underlying contamination.
So lets take a look at the effective solutions. Because
distillation produces a fuel that is practically sterile,
the simplest solution is to keep it that way by avoiding
exposing the product to water (including condensate) and
air. But because this is quite simply not feasible, NFV
technology offers proven solutions to tackle this problem
effectively.
Water forms in the storage tanks and when spot
deliveries are added, as well along the entire supply
chain, thus creating the environment micro-organisms
need to grow. This chain continues into the bunker tanks
and right through to the service and feed tanks.
1. To avoid recontamination, it is necessary to start
with the fundamental design when building and
reconditioning tank systems. Easy, fast and regular
dewatering must be a key feature in these plans.
MAHLE Industrial Filtration in Hamburg supplies fully
automatic tank dewatering systems which not only
remove the pure water phase at the bottom of the
tank, but also separate the water in the intermediate
phase (prod-uct/water). Tank systems, including
storage tanks, bunker and feed tanks, must be
designed to provide optimum separation conditions.
Drainage pipes, which also act as sampling points
for NFV maintenance systems as well as dewatering
outlets of fuel pipelines, must be installed at the very
lowest point (Fig. 3).
Figure 3: Tank dewatering system

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Every effort must be made to maintain microbial
quality stan dards when designing tank systems
and transport systems for fuel; dewatering systems
such as NFV fuel treatment systems which ensure
with guaranteed residual water contents of be tween
<20 50ppm play an important part in achieving and
maintaining these quality standards.
2. Biocides can be used to prevent microbial growth
in fuel storage tanks; these substances can also be
used to clean up contaminated fuels.
A suitable biocide should contain an active agent
which imme diately kills off all micro-organisms. As
experts, MAHLE Indus trial Filtration in Hamburg
can recommend a suitable biocide. The biocide
is effective against a wide spectrum of bacteria
(including sulphate-reducing bacteria) and is also
effective against yeasts and fungi.
The alkalinity of the biocide neutralises the acids
produced by microbial growth, thus providing effective
and lasting protec tion against corrosion.
No corrosive combustion products are formed;
the substance is sulphur-free, contains no organic
chlorine compounds so that there is no hazard of the
waste water being contaminated by AOX. It contains
no halogens and complies with interna tional emission
standards.
MAHLE Industrial Filtration supplies metering systems
for the preventive application of biocide; these meters
can be used to add precise doses of biocide each time
the tank is flled.
A German shipyard building a gas oil treatment
system followed the recommendations of the turbine
manufacturer and installed mechanical separators, which
were, however, not capable of bringing the residual water
content down to the necessary levels. Subsequently, a
NFV metering system was installed to add a preventive
dose of biocide every time the tank is flled.
SUMMARy
Fuels and other petroleum products will always be prone
to microbial contamination.
Regular tests can help to detect the problem at an early
stage, allowing appropriate countermeasures to be
taken to kill off the microbes and avoid contamination.
Water separators (phase separators) which are capable
of removing practically all the water in the fuel (NFV
systems) offer dependable protection against micro-
organisms and the consequences of microbial contamina-
tion (see Fig. 4).
A biocide can also be used as a secondary method of

protecting the fuel against contamination.
COMPANy
MAHLE Industriefltration GmbH is part of the MAHLE
Group, one of the worlds 30 largest automotive suppliers,
and is a global supplier of innovative, top quality industrial
flters. MAHLE Industrial Filtration has two brands: NFV
and AKO.
For almost 50 years, NFV products have been used by
shipping companies as reliable systems for deoiling,
membrane fltration and fuel and oil treatment. Our
products help our partners to successfully balance
economy and ecology. By focusing our maritime and
petrochemical activities in the new Hamburg facility, we
are able to streamline research, planning and production
in one site.
MAHLE Industrial Filtrations NFV and AKO products offer
a broad range of customised and highly effcient fltration
and separation systems for a wide variety of applications:
from bilge water separation to ballast water treatment
and engine maintenance, the protection of hydraulic
systems and pipelines, transfer and circulation systems.
Figure 4: Blocked fuel line
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85
This comprehensive portfolio is rounded off by customer
support services precisely tailored to customers needs.
Ten of the worlds top 15 shipping companies, the worlds
three largest shipyards and naval services around the
world (including the German, Turkish, Russian and U.S.
Navy) equip their ships with our environmentally friendly,
high quality systems, placing their trust in the outstanding
operating security of NFV systems. NFV products have
been the German Navys partner of choice for deoiling,
membrane fltration and fuel treatment systems for over
30 years.
The MAHLE Group is one of the 30 largest automotive
suppliers worldwide. As the leading manufacturer of
combustion engine components, systems and peripherals,
MAHLE is among the top three suppliers for piston
systems, cylinder components, valve train systems, air
management systems and liquid management systems.
MAHLE employs approximately 48,000 employees in 110
production plants and eight research and development
centers. In 2007, MAHLE generated sales in excess of
EUR 5 billion (USD 7.5 billion).
For further questions please contact:
MAHLE Industriefltration GmbH
Christian Kchlin
Tarpenring 31 - 33
22419 Hamburg
Phone: +49 (0) 40/53 00 40-66
Fax: +49 (0) 40/53 00 40-77
christian.kuechlin@mahle.com
www.mahle-industrialfltration.com
Press releases and picture services for downloading:
www.mahle-industrialfltration\news and press
Eberhard Runge was managing director of MAHLE
Industriefltration GmbH, formerly MAHLE NFV GmbH,
until he retired on 30th June 2008. Since then, he has
worked as a consultant for MAHLE Industrial Filtration
in Hamburg.

He is a member of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce
plenum and chairman of the Chambers Environment
committee and member of the Environment
committee of the DIHK (German Chamber of Industry
and Commerce) in Berlin.
Founded in 1984, Oakwell Engineering Limited has grown
into a public-listed company (1994) distributing engineering
products for the oil & gas, petrochemical, chemical, marine and
utilities industries, as well as providing a wide array of services,
including stocking, engineering design and fabrication. We also
supply power, control and instrument speciality cables, heat
tracing cables, explosion-proof electrical construction materials
and equipment, electronic products, mechanic products
such as special alloy copper nickel pipes and fttings, valves,
compressors, pumps, equipment system packages, etc.
We represent a stocklist of the following lines:
Marine & Offshore Electrical Cable
> Nexans - Kukdong > Nexans - Corfex > Nexans - Gorse
Navigation Aid > Orga
Heat Tracing > Thermon
Electrical Apparatus > Crouse - Hinds, CEAG
Cable Gland & Accessories > Capri, CMP
Our Global Offces
Singapore
Malaysia
Indonesia
Thailand
China
USA
OAKWELL ENGINEERING LIMITED
No.8AljuniedAve3OakwellBuildingSingapore389933
Tel: (65) 6742 8000 Fax: (65) 6742 3000
Email: enquiry@oakwell.com.sg
Web: www.oakwell.com.sg
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ABSTRACT
Fiber rope used as substitute for steel wire for ultra deep
water installation operations has been successfully used
since September 2006 in Gulf of Mexico and West Africa.
More than 300 installations in water depths up to 2750 m
have been completed using a 46Te fbre rope deployment
system (FRDS). A Rope Management System is part of
the winch control system which assures higher utilization
and risk mitigation. Scaling of the technology up to 125
Te and 250 Te lifting capacity is now in process through
two commercial contracts, with Aker Oilfeld services
and Havila Shipping.
INTRODUCTION
The industry trend of more oil and gas exploration in deep
and ultra deep water has put focus on fnding faster and
cheaper methods for installation and construction work at
these water depths. One signifcant driver in this picture
is the weight of the lifting line. The weight penalty of steel
wire is increasing rapidly with depth, and is becoming a
signifcant cost driver for depths beyond 2000 meters.
A solution for this is to avoid the weight penalty by using
lifting line that is close to neutrally buoyant in water. Using
fber rope as substitute for steel wire for deep water
installation is an attractive solution. However, several
challenges with regards to handling of fber rope must
be solved and a corresponding handling system must be
available in order to take advantage of this opportunity.
This has been the purpose of the development and
feld demonstration of the patented ODIM CTCU
technology through several Joint Industry Projects
since 2002. The background for the development and
the status and results so far as well as future plans are
presented in this paper.
Comparison between steel wire and fber rope
Traditionally, steel wire is used as lifting lines in offshore
lifting operations. These lifting lines have limitations,
particularly in deep water, primarily due to their self
weight. Utilizing high strength, low weight synthetic fber
ropes instead of steel wire as the lifting line substantially
reduces the weight of the lifting line and consequently
the needed pulling force of the handling system. This
in turn will reduce the needed power supply from the
vessel and opens up for using smaller vessels for heavy
lift operations in deep water. Smaller vessels and less
powerful handling systems for the same job, inherently
makes fber rope technology an environmentally friendly
solution.
Comparison between steel wire and fber rope with
regards to weight of lifting the line, required working
load for a winch system and power consumption for
installation of a 125 Te payload is shown below. A factor
of safety of 4 has been used both for steel wire and fber
rope in the calculations.
Fig. 1: Line-pull at surface.
Sverre Torben
ODIM
Per Ingeberg
ODIM
Fibre Rope Deployment System:
The Solution to Deepwater Installation Challenges
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87
At 3000 m water depth, the required working load for the
steel wire winch will be around 300 Te, whilst only 127 Te
is required for the fber rope winch.
Fig. 2: Rope weight in air.
Another interesting aspect is the weight of the lifting line
with regards to fabrication, handling and transportation.
The weight in air of the required steel wire for this case
will be around 200 Te, whilst the corresponding fber
rope weight will only be 20 Te. 200 Te weight for a steel
wire represents a challenge with regard to logistics
and handling, and is getting close to practical limits and
capabilities for the industry today.
Fig. 3: Power supplied to lifting line.
Considering an Active Heave Compensated system
(AHC) with speed capacity of 1.5 m/s, the peak power
supplied by the winch to the lifting line is shown in Fig.
3. For a system rated for 3000 meters water depth, the
steel wire system would need to deliver power peaks of
4.4 MW to the lifting line, whilst the fber rope system
would only need to supply 1.9 MW peak power to the
fber rope. This represents the minimum installed power
of the motors of the handling system. The actual power
supplied from the vessel to the handling system depends
upon several factors like electric or hydraulic drives, size
of accumulators for hydraulic systems, mechanical losses
etc.
Challenges
From this comparison of steel wire and fber rope, the
motivation and potential savings are quite obvious.
However, the utilization of fber ropes for lifting lines is not
completely straight forward. There are major differences
in the properties of fber ropes compared to steel wire
that need to be considered when developing a fber rope
handling system:
Subsea installation means deployment of a heavy
object and recovery of the empty hook. To avoid
spooling rope onto the drum at very low tension during
recovery of the empty hook, a traction unit is required
for installation systems using fber rope. Otherwise,
high tension rope would squeezes into softly spooled
on layers during deployment of a heavy object.
Toavoidexcessivecreepoftheropeonthestorage
drum, the rope is recommended to be stored at a
tension below 10% of the Minimum Breaking Load.
At a typical safety factor of 4 - 5, the working load
will represent 20-25% of the Minimum Breaking
Load, which is well above the recommended storage
tension. Thus, a traction unit is needed also in the
case of recovery operations of heavy payloads.
Fiber ropes have lower axial stiffness, causing
significant elongation of the rope as tension is
increased through the traction winch, which would
cause damaging slippage between the fber rope and
the traction winch drums using a traditional traction
winch.
Fatiguelifewhensubjectedtoconstantcyclicbending
e.g. during heave compensation modes, must be
managed. This is also the case for steel wire, but
an additional challenge with fber rope is related to
internal heat build up and the sensibility to heat of the
fbers.
Fiberropeswithabraidedconstructionandwithout
a jacket can easily be spliced. This opens up for
possibilities to utilize the fatigue life of the entire
rope by cutting out and replacing worn sections. This
requires that the handling system can handle splices
in an effcient and safe manner.
Fiberropeshaveaverylowandvariablecoeffcient
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of friction due to rope coating, contaminations,
temperature etc. This is a challenge when designing
a traction winch system which is depending on
friction.
Loweraxialstiffnessmeansthatresonantconditions
can be seen at more shallow depths than for
comparable steel wire systems.
Careful consideration needs to be given to these
differences, or the fber ropes will suffer from severe
wear and premature failure.
TECHNOLOGy
The Fiber Rope
Important features defned for a fber rope used as lifting
line in heave compensated systems are:
HighCyclicBendOverSheaveperformance.
Torquefreeconstruction.
Fieldinspectableandrepairable.
Highstrengthtoweightratio.
The fber rope from Puget Sound Rope used in the
current development is commonly referred to as Braid
Optimized for Bending (BOB) and is based upon a 12x12
braided construction. This assures a torque free rope and
at the same time, a rope that can easily be inspected
internally and repaired offshore by trained riggers. Repair
will typically give an inline splice with a diameter 50%
above the nominal rope size. The handling system must
be capable of handling these splices in order to take
advantage of the repairability of the rope.
A blend of High Modulus PolyEthylene (HMPE) and Liquid
Crystal Polymer (LCP) fbers has been used to provide
good temperature resistance and good creep properties.
In addition a lubricant coating is used to reduce friction
between fbers and thereby internal wear and heat build
up in cyclic bend over sheave operation. The challenge
from this is that the handling system must be designed
for very low coeffcients of friction.
Typically minimum D:d ratio requirement for heave
compensating sheaves is 30:1 for this rope (D being the
pitch diameter of the rope around a sheave and d the
rope diameter).
Handling system
The ODIM CTCU system is a technology developed
by the company ODIM in Norway during the last 10
years for handling of sensitive cables like Seismic
cables, fber optic cables and since 2002 also for fber
ropes. A dedicated ODIM CTCU system for deep
water installation using fber rope as lifting line is briefy
described below. This system having a safe working
load of 46 Te with a dynamic factor of 1.3 was developed
through a JIP sponsored by DEMO 2000, oil companies,
marine contractors and rope / fber manufacturer.
Fig. 4: 46 Te FRDS System.
The main parts of the ODIM CTCU system are:
ODIMCTCU:Aseriesofsheaveswithindividual
drives that are used to de-tension the rope.
StW:StorageWinchtostoretheropeatlowtension.It
will also assure a constant back tension for the ODIM
CTCU traction unit to assure frictional capacity.
IDD:InboardDampingDevicethatwillsmoothenthe
tension between the ODIM CTCU and the StW.
ODD:OutboardDampingDeviceusedforconstant
tension and pull limit control (optional).
OBD:OverBoardingDevice.
HPU:HydraulicPowerUnitwithaccumulatorsthat
supplies the system with high and low pressure oil.
ControlSystem:Computersystemusedfordynamic
control of individual machines and interactions
between machines. The control system also
includes the Human Machine Interface and a Rope
Management System as described in the next
section.
The fber rope is stored at constant tension on the
storage winch on top of the structure. For this particular
unit, the storage winch was designed for 4500m of
56 mm rope. From the storage winch, the rope is fed
through the spooling device and inboard damping device
before entering the individual sheaves of the ODIM
CTCU. From the ODIM CTCU, the rope is guided

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89
over the outboard damping device before entering the
overboarding device.
Important feature of the ODIM CTCU traction unit
are:
Activeloaddistribution:Sharestheloadbetweenthe
sheaves within the physical limitations of each sheave,
i.e. within the frictional capacity of the sheaves and
the pulling capacity of the drive system for each
traction sheave.
Slip control: Controls the speed of the sheaves to
compensate for rope load elongation and variations
of diameter due to splices.
Antispincontrol:Detectsandreactuponemerging
spinning situation. Spin is detected by comparing
sheave speed with measured rope speed (measured
by a redundant measuring system). The system will
react by reducing torque on a sheave getting in to a
spinning situation.
D:dratioaccordingtorequirementforcyclicbendover
sheave of fber rope (active heave compensation).
The general minimum requirement from the rope
manufacturer is 30:1 today. This particular system was
designed with a D:d ratio of 35:1 giving the fexibility
to using larger sized ropes (higher safety factor) and
still maintain the min D:d ratio requirement.
Differentiatedsheavecoatingsoptimizedwithregards
to load and required frictional capacity for each
sheave.
Sheavegrooveprofleallowingforsplicehandling.
Ropepre-conditioning:Bringstheropesizedownto
nominal size during frst time spooling of new rope.
From a system point of view, all needed functionality for
deep water installation and construction operations are
present:
Highspeeddeploymentofheavyloads.
High speed deployment and recovery of empty
hook.
Powerfulandaccurateactiveheavecompensation:
speed capacity of 2 m/s and 95% accuracy according
to signal representing vessel motions.
Accurateconstanttensionfunction(CT).
Pulllimit:Activelimitationofallowedpullingforce.Pull
Limit can be combined with AHC. This can also be
extended to a splash zone transition function (avoid
excessive peak loads or slack slings during splash
zone transition).
Automaticlandingfunction:Automatictransitionfrom
AHC to CT upon landing. This function may also be
combined with Pull Limit.
Automaticlift-offfunction:Automatictransitionfrom
CT to AHC during liftoff. This function may also be
combined with Pull Limit.
Cranemode:Brakehandlingaccordingtorequirements
for offshore cranes, thus the FRDS can be integrated
with crane, A-frame or other overboarding devices
and handle the payload in air / on deck.
Rope Management System
Any kind of steel wire or fber rope will suffer from fatigue
when being bent around a sheave. In fact, knowledge of
bend fatigue life of large low rotation steel wires is not
well documented to date.
Cyclic bending over sheave will occur in AHC and CT
operations. Real time knowledge of the condition of the
rope at any point of the rope is crucial information in order
to avoid failure of the rope or to be able to utilize the rope
asset in an effcient manner.
Fiber ropes being repairable provides the operators with
a unique opportunity to utilize the rope-fatigue-life for all
parts of the rope. However this further emphasizes the
need for a reliable system for monitoring and managing
the condition of the rope as the rope confguration
changes upon cutting and splicing of the rope.
To date, there are limited feld data available to support
rope wear calculations and the establishment of
retirement criteria for the rope. Hence, conservative
calculations must be applied at the current stage. To
speed up and assure quality of the development of
wear calculation methods and establishment of less
conservative retirement criteria, a system providing data
for this development process is highly important.
For the ODIM CTCU based Fiber Rope Deployment
System, a Rope Management System (RMS) has
been developed as an integral part of the winch control
system. Real time signals on position and applied tension
of any part of the rope is available. This information is
then compared with geometrical data of the FRDS, such
as sheave diameter and distance between sheaves. On
this basis the RMS is capable of counting the number
of bends at every position of the rope and weighs each
bend according to a factor given by e.g. bend radius and
rope tension at each bend point.
In the RMS, the rope is split into rope segments with
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confgurable length of e.g. 0.33 meters for which rope
data is recorded. Data are processed and displayed in
real time on the winch operator computer as shown in
Fig. 5. Alarms for inspection and replacement of a rope
segment that has reached a confgurable alarm limit are
also implemented as part of the FRDS alarm system.
Data is also stored such that it is possible to post process
data e.g. using a new factor for bend weighing.
Fig. 5: Rope Management System main screen.
To account for changes in rope confguration when a
section of rope is cut out or a new section of rope is
spliced in, the RMS has functionality for managing data
in such operations. When a section of rope has reached
its retirement criteria or if the operator would like to check
the actual condition of the rope, this section of rope is
cut out and sent to laboratory for testing of residual
strength. Data for the corresponding section of rope
will automatically be retrieved from the RMS database
in this process. Based upon results from residual break
tests, the retirement criteria and weighing formulas
can be improved. Hence, the RMS is a powerful tool to
speed up and assure quality in rope wear and retirement
calculations.
For steel wire, repair by cutting out and splicing in sections
are not possible. The wire may be cut of at the end, and
thereby reducing the total length, or the complete rope
must be replaced.
FIELD EXPERIENCE
The 46Te system was delivered to Subsea7 in 2006 for
doing subsea installation work from Toisa Perseus in
Gulf of Mexico in water depths up to 2750m.
A rope life management procedure was developed before
this installation work was launched. This involved three
principal sub-tasks:
Developmentofaconservativeropeliferetirement
criterion.
Developmentofwinchsoftwarewhichwouldtrack
the progress of the rope towards repair or retirement
(see rope management system as described above)
Development of operating procedures for rope
inspection and repair.
The planned use of heave compensation meant that
some localized areas of the rope would see a great deal
of cyclic bending, while other parts of the rope would
see only a few cycles as the rope passed through the
winch during lowering to or recovering from depth. The
philosophy adopted was that progress towards rope repair
or retirement would be monitored by a combination of
bend counting, and internal and external rope inspection.
The location of the internal inspections would be chosen
based upon the recorded bend counts.
The rope retirement criterion was expressed as a number
of weighed bends, where a rope bend under the same
conditions of rope tension and sheave diameter as the
high tension driven sheave on the test of the 46 Te ODIM
CTCU system counted as one bend. Bends incurred
at lower tension, for example on an intermediate driven
sheave, had a lower weighing. Bends incurred on a
smaller diameter sheave would have a higher weighing.
The number of weighed bends is therefore not the same
as the number of actual bends.
Development of the rope retirement criteria was based
upon relevant rope test data from the Dish JIP
[1]
, results of
destructive testing of the test rope from the development
testing of the 46Te ODIM CTCU and research results
provided by the rope manufacturer, Puget Sound Rope.
Although there was a considerable quantity of test data,
there was very little at the low rope loads typical of
those occurring at the inboard end of the winch. The
bend weighing formula developed was a result of rope
modeling work undertaken to assess the effect of rope
tension, sheave diameter and groove profle on rope life.
The strength of a rope experiencing cyclic bend-over-
sheave loading decreases with increasing numbers of
bend cycles. The rope retirement criterion was chosen
so that the decreasing factor of safety on a fber rope in
service would never be less than what is permitted for
new steel wire rope.
The permitted number of weighed bends to rope internal

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inspection and retirement (base line criteria) were
set conservatively based on the history of a test rope
used during an extensive barge test of the 46 Te ODIM
CTCU system. Additional conservatisms were that the
expected benefcial effects of rope cooling implemented
for Gulf of Mexico operation were ignored, and that
improvements in the bend counting software since the
barge test were also ignored. When the frst section of
rope reaches the retirement criterion, this section will
be cut out and tested extensively, following which the
retirement criterion will be reviewed. It is expected that
this will allow the number of weighed bends to retirement
for the remainder of the rope to be revised upwards.
The RMS software in the winch keeps track of the
location of the bend points (points where rope enters and
exits sheaves or the storage winch) in relation to the rope
as a whole. The software calculates the bend weighing
at each bend point in the winch using its internal model
of the variation of tension through the winch, working
from the instantaneous measured rope tension on the
outboard side of the winch. The rope length is divided up
into notional short segments and the number of weighed
bends which have been experienced by each segment
of the rope is recorded. The software fags the need for
rope inspection at set percentages of the rope retirement
criterion.
To be able to fully exploit the unique repairability feature
of fber rope, the system is designed to be a fully self
contained unit capable of performing these operations in
an offshore environment. Procedures for rope inspection
and repair are developed and tested and training program
for vessel personnel established.
If a new section of rope is spliced in at the end of the
rope or an end section cut off, a new eye splice must
be made. Proof load of the new eye splices is done by
connecting the spliced eye with thimble to a dedicated
fxed point in the system and then pulled and held using
the FRDS to a proof load limit according to DNV rules and
regulations for load testing.
In order to make an inspection or repair in the middle
of the rope, the rope section in question is positioned
between the last sheave of the ODIM CTCU unit
and the over boarding sheave. The fber rope can then
be unloaded by hanging off the load using a specially
developed Chinese Finger. The load holding capacity of
the Chinese Finger is tested to a proof load of 10% above
the proof load level of the splice Te. Test is witnessed by
DNV.
Fig. 6: Load hang-off using Chinese Finger.
An in-line splicing method that can easily be performed
offshore has been developed. The cutting, insertion and
splicing of the fber rope is done by pulling out a loop
of rope between the last ODIM CTCU sheave and
the over boarding device. To proof load in-line splices,
a Chinese Finger is installed downstream of the in-line
splice and hooked up to a dedicated fxed point in the
system. The splice is proof loaded by pulling and holding
using the FRDS according to general requirements for
load tests in DNV lifting appliances.
Fig. 7: In-line splice made in two colors for illustration.
Fix. 8: In-line splice before proof loading.
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To prepare the system for Gulf of Mexico climate, a
temperature review of the system was conducted. This
resulted in installation of a deluge system for the rope to
be used during prolonged active heave compensation at
fxed depth. Other modifcations were installation of AC
units and sun screens for electrical cabinets.
To assess the safety aspects of the system and make
sure to comply with Subsea 7 safety requirements, a
PUWER (Provision and Use of Work Equipment) analysis
was performed and the system upgraded accordingly. To
reduce the risk of down time, the FMEA (Failure Mode
and Effect Analysis) from the design phase was reviewed
and a suitable spare package procured.
3300 meters of new rope was also procured for this
project. It was delivered in a container from the rope
manufacturer. The diameter of new rope is almost twice
of the nominal diameter, thus it was necessary to pre-
tension the rope before spooling it onto the system. This
was done by using the unique pre-conditioning function
of the ODIM CTCU which brings the rope down to
nominal size during the spooling process. The rope
tension was increased to 25 Te using the frst 3 driven
sheaves and brought down to 7 Te storage tension using
the next 3 driven sheaves.
Mobilization
The Fiber Rope Deployment System was mobilized on
Toisa Perseus in September 2006.
Fig. 9: FRDS being lifted onboard Toisa Perseus.
The system was installed to work over the side of the
vessel:
Fig. 10: FRDS installed on Toisa Perseus.
To assure some tension on the Fiber Rope Deployment
System during recovery of the empty hook, a clump
weight of 0.8 Te is used. A 25 meters pennant with
protective jacket on sub-ropes is used between the
clump weight and the ROV hook. This was installed to
avoid damage on the rope during ROV handling of the
hook.
Installation tasks
The installation campaign in Gulf of Mexico started
in September 2006 and lasted for 9 months. 190
deployments and recoveries to water depths between
2000-2750m were performed. The types of operations
were:
Installationofmudmats.
Loweringandstabbingofsecondendofumbilicals.
Installationofmanifolds.
Installationofspoolpiecesandjumpers.
InstallationofX-masthree.
The installation tasks were done by deploying the
units by the vessel crane and make load transfer to
the ODIM CTCU at 1000 meters water depth. The
payload was then deployed to a few meters above the
seabed. Positioning and landing was done using active
heave compensation. In parallel with the installation by
the ODIM CTCU, the crane recovered to deck and
launched the next unit to 1000m. Thus, the ROV needed
for load transfer from the crane to the ODIM CTCU did
not have to go all the way back to the surface.
For the lowering of second end of umbilicals, the load
was cross hauled from the vessel A&R winch working
through the moonpool to the FRDS at suitable depth and
lowered to the sea bed. During stabbing of the umbilical

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into the Stab and Hinge Over Mudmats, active heave
compensation has proven to be very useful.
Fig. 11: FRDS in operation on Toisa Perseus.
To date (January 2008) 320 lifts have been completed
with the FRDS in the Gulf of Mexico and Nigeria since
September 2006. The general feedback from the operator
of the system is very positive. Especially the high speed
capability of the system has provided a considerable time
saving for these ultra deep water installations.
The rope has also performed very well, without any major
issues.
The general arrangement of the system with the storage
winch and spooling device on top of the ODIM CTCU
provides a very compact solution. Comparable steel wire
systems available today, require considerably more deck
space due to feet angle for spooling.
It should be noted that the ODIM CTCU system can
easily be split into separate units for arrangement under
deck. Housing in protected area is always an advantage
with regard to maintenance and life of equipment.
Delivery time for steel wire is considerable today partly
because of the general shortage of steel in general.
Further, a complete length of steel wire must be provided
to change the lifting line while a short section for repair
will suffce in most cases for fber rope.
The frst inspection point for the fber rope was reached
after 6 months and 140 installations. Full internal and
external inspection was performed at the actual point of
rope having seen the highest number of bend cycles. No
broken or damage fbers were recorded, and outer layer
was also found to be in good condition.
The limit for taking out a sample was reached after
approximately 300 lifts by the end of 2007. A section
of the rope has been cut out and sent to laboratory for
residual strength test. Data from this test combined with
the recorded bend history from the Rope Management
System will be used to adjust the retirement criteria and
improve the wear calculation model for the rope.
SCALING-UP OF THE TECHNOLOGy

In September 2006 a new DEMO 2000 funded project
was launched with the objective to scale up the
technology from the 46 Te safe working load unit to a
125Te safe working load unit. This project includes a
feld pilot at the end which will demonstrate a two fall
operation in deep water using fber rope. The system is
designed with a capacity of 250Te to 3000m in two fall
operation. The main performances of the system are:
SafeWorkingLoad:125Te.
PeakLoad:162.5Te(DynamicAmplifcationFactorof
1.3).
Speedcapacity:1.5m/s(optional2m/s).
Continuousdeploymentspeedat125Te:0.5m/s.
Continuousrecoveryspeedat125Te:0.3m/s.
Continuousrecoveryspeedemptyhook:1.5m/s.
ActiveHeaveCompensation:4.8mpeaktopeakat
10 s period (optional 6.4 m peak to peak at 10 s period
with a more power ful drive line).
Storagewinchcapacity:7000mof88mmfberrope.
Can lift 250Te to 3000m water depth in two fall
confguration.
Fig. 12: 125Te ODIM CTCU system with
storage winch capacity for 7000m.
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The status of this project is that the system is in production
in Norway, through a commercial contract with Aker
Oilfeld Services. Aker intends to use the system on a
vessel that shall operate for Petrobras installing X-mas
threes in ultra deep water. The system will go through a
comprehensive system test program in the frst quarter
of 2009.
The feld pilot will take place after installation on the
vessel, assumed to be in the second half of 2009. The
feld pilot is planned to cover a 100Te lift to 1000m in two
fall confguration.
Further scaling of the technology for heavy lift vessel
is also in process, through a commercial contract with
Havila Shipping for a 250Te ODIM CTCU system.
Rope manufacturers are now capable of fabricating
braided fber ropes with diameters up to approximately
175mm with an MBL exceeding 2000Te. In parallel with
the commercial contracts for such large ODIM CTCU
systems, the industry would like to better understand the
long term behavior of large diameter fbre ropes, typically
130 140 mm.
Today, there are no test facilities capable of doing dynamic
testing like Cyclic Bend Over Sheave (CBOS) at these
sizes. However, ODIM is now in process of establishing
test-facilities capable of doing full CBOS tests on large
sizes, as part of a Joint Industry Project (JIP) together
with some of the major oil-companies and marine
contractors as partners. This project is also funded by
Demo 2000 and Innovation Norway.
The heavy lift industry has also shown interest for this
scaling of the ODIM CTCU technology. Installation
capacity of 2000 Te up to 3500 meters water depth is
currently in focus. Fiber rope can be produced in any
length. Due to its excellent splicing properties, it is also
a viable solution to produce very long lengths in sections
suitable for transportation and handling and then join the
sections together during spooling onto the system. In this
way it is realistic to have systems confgured for multi fall
confguration even in ultra deep water operations. E.g.
to install 2000 Te in 3500 m water depth, 2 off 250Te
systems working in 4 fall confguration can be used. A
rope of 14500 m will be needed on both winches for this
purpose.
Fig. 13: Heavy lift system with capacity of 2000 Te to 35000 m.
CONCLUSIONS
The challenges associated with using fber rope in lifting
operations have been solved and fully feld proven.
Extensive use of the ODIM CTCU system in ultra
deep water installations in Gulf of Mexico and west
of Nigeria have further demonstrated the suitability
of this technology in the most challenging offshore
environments, and also proven that it outperforms
steelwire with respect to service life, by a factor of 4 6
times.
Management of rope condition is crucial for utilization
and control of repairable rope. Methods and tools for this
purpose have been developed through this project, and
feld experience is being built in a structured way by data
collection, inspections and sample testing.
Scaling up the ODIM CTCU technology to 125Te and
250Te is in process through commercial contracts with
Aker Oilfeld Services and Havila Shipping.
Investment in rope test facilities is currently in process,
in order to be able to predict long term behavior of large
size diameter fbre ropes. This is part of a new industry
initiative through a Joint Industry Project. .
Heavy lift systems for ultra deep water installation of
modules up to 2000 Te is also being studied at conceptual
levels.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The important work of establishing a rope retirement
criteria was conducted by Dan Davidson on behalf of
Subsea 7.
Thanks to Subsea 7 for being the frst company to actually
take this technology into commercial use.
Thanks to Aker Oilfeld Services for taking this technology
further up to 125Te system being subject for verifcation
of durability of using double-fall confguration.
Thanks to Havila Shipping for taking this technology
further up to 250Te system, now being subject for high
attention amongst the heavy lifting industry, focused on
how to get complete subsea processing systems down
to seabed levels up to 3000 mtrs. water depth.
Finally, thanks to the major oil companies, marine
contractors, DEMO 2000 and Innovations Norway for
fnancially support of the past and currently ongoing
JIP's.
REFERENCES
1. DISH (Deep water Installation of Subsea Hardware)
Joint Industry Project, www.Dish-jip.com, (2001-
2006).
2. FRDS/ODIM CTCU related JIP funded through
DEMO2000, www.demo2000.no
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Service Experience: MAN B&W Engines
Mikael C. Jensen & Stig B. Jakobsen
MAN Diesel, Low Speed, Copenhagen (Denmark)
CONTENTS
Introduction
Service Experience Update
- ME system
- General update on ME and MC engines
Low Sulphur Fuel Operation
Laying-up of Vessels
Slow Steaming
Conclusion
References
INTRODUCTION

This paper deals with the latest service experience
updates relevant for MAN B&W two-stroke engines. The
paper also deals with relevant topics related to vessel
operation, such as operation on distillates, laying-up of
vessels and slow steaming.

SERVICE EXPERIENCE UPDATE

ME system

Over the past years, we have described various areas
with room for improvement on the ME system in a
number of papers dealing with service experience. The
most recent paper is Service Experience 2008, MAN
B&W Engines, Ref. [1].

In this paper, we will comment on issues which are still
undergoing investigation at the time of writing. Also,
future planned upgrades will be mentioned. Especially
the trouble shooting tools implemented in a new ECS
software version will be commented on.

Cavitation damage in the exhaust valve actuation
system
Fig. 1 shows cavitation damage in the high pressure pipe
between the exhaust actuator and the exhaust valve.
Also cavitation damage in the actuator top cover and in
the top of the exhaust valve can be seen. This kind of
damage is seen on the large bore versions of the ME
engine (80, 90 and 98 bore). It is not seen to the same
extent on all units on an engine. Therefore, damage can
be counteracted with relatively small changes.

Fig. 1: Cavitation in hydraulic exhaust actuation system
Service tests where the proportional feature of the FIVA
valve is used are presently ongoing. So far, we have
only used the proportional control of the FIVA valve for
injection rate shaping, but now we also use it in order to
open and close the exhaust valve gently. Fig. 2 shows
the original lifting curve and the modifed lifting curve of
the exhaust valve. No big change can be seen. However,
the oil pressure fuctuations in the actuator system are
modifed to some extent, and we expect that this will
reduce/eliminate the cavitation damage in the exhaust
actuation system.

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Fig. 2: Use of proportional (FIVA) control for exhaust valve actuation
Cavitation in the pilot step of the FIVA valve
We have seen cavitation attacks on the pilot spools of
both the Curtis Wright FIVA valve, Fig. 3, and the Parker
valve on the MAN B&W FIVA valve, Fig. 4. Presently, this
limits the overhaul intervals of the FIVA valves to some
8,000-10,000 hours. Our goal for overhaul intervals on
FIVA valves is 32,000 hours.

Fig. 3: Curtis Wright FIVA: cavitation on pilot spool

Fig. 4: MAN B&W FIVA: cavitation on Parker valve pilot spool

The cavitation damage on the Parker spools are mainly
related to the tank ports for the pilot step. We have
therefore designed two (2) service tests, which are
presently gaining hours on two (2) 12K98ME plants. Fig.
5 shows the test FIVA with the pilot tank port connected
to the FIVA main spool pressurised tank port. Fig. 6
shows the other FIVA with the pilot tank port connected
to a completely pressure-less drain.

Fig. 5: MAN B&W FIVA: cavitation countermeasure test 1

Fig. 6: MAN B&W FIVA: cavitation countermeasure test 2
On the basis of the results of these tests, we will
conclude final countermeasures in order to extend
overhaul intervals to an acceptable time span.

Feedback sensors with Canon connectors
A small, but irritating, failure mode in the ME system
has been loose connections in the Canon connectors on
the feedback sensors, Fig. 7. Loose connections here
are very diffcult to fnd in service as they are often also
intermittent. We have now introduced sensors which are
equipped with cables coming directly out of the sensors
and then connected through conventional junction boxes,
Fig. 8. The so-called tail solution has reduced failures
resulting from loose connections.

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Fig. 7: Canon connectors on feedback sensors: loose connection
Fig. 8: Tail solution for feedback sensor

Hard disks for the Main Operating Panel (MOP)
In the computers driving the MOPs, we have changed
the standard for the hard disk used in this application.
Originally, the computers were equipped with
conventional hard disks and their lifetime was not
satisfactory. Therefore, we introduced solid state disks
as a new standard, Fig. 9. These disks are also used as
replacement for MOPs in service.

Fig. 9: Solid state disk (SSD) to replace
conventional hard disks in MOPs
Multi Purpose Controller (MPC) quality
In order to improve the quality of the MPCs, we have
introduced so-called burn-in tests of all produced
MPCs. The background is an investigation of more than
100 returned MPCs. Of these, approx. 25% did not show
failure until they were subjected to the burn-in test. With
the introduction of full scale burn-in tests, we expect
that the MPC failure rate will be reduced signifcantly,
especially during the commissioning stage (shop test,
quay trial and sea trial).

New updated ECS software
A new version of the Engine Control System (ECS)
software will soon be introduced both to new engines and
to engines in service. The main focus for this software is
to provide better trouble shooting tools onboard vessels
equipped with ME engines.

Various new screens on the MOP have been developed in
order to assist the engine crew in more qualifed trouble
shooting. An example is the HCU event recorder
and the related MOP screen, Fig. 10. The HCU event
recorder records a number of predetermined signals
related to the HCU (Hydraulic Cylinder Unit) continuously.
If an alarm related to the HCU is activated, a record of
signals is stored and can later be seen on the MOP, some
r/min before activation of the alarm and some r/min after.
This will assist the engine crew in locating the reason for
the alarm.
Fig. 10: New ECS software with trouble shooting screens
Another example of improved support to the engine crew
is the tacho adjustment screen, Fig. 11. This MOP screen
assists the engine crew in making re-adjustment of the
tacho system.

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Fig. 11: New ECS software with trouble shooting screens

There are a number of other new screens relating to the
HCU and the HPS (Hydraulic Power Supply). Altogether,
the new software will enable much more qualifed trouble
shooting onboard.

Off-engine located MPCs
As an alternative to the MPCs being located on the
engine, we have introduced a design where the MPCs
are located in larger cabinets, Fig. 12, which can be
located away from the engine, e.g. in the engine control
room, in a switchboard room or directly in the engine
room. From now on, we will gain experience with respect
to i.a. lifetime of the MPCs. Also, possible production
benefts of the alternative execution can be measured
in the future.
Fig. 12: Large cabinet suited for engine control room placement
Drain box for the exhaust valve drain lines
On 80 and 98 bore engines, we have seen breakage of
the drain lines from the exhaust valve. A design with a
so-called drain box, Fig. 13, has been tested successfully.
This design will counteract the drain line breakage
trouble.

Fig. 13: Exhaust valve drain line with drain box
General update on ME and MC engines
Apart from the ME system specifc issues, we also have
certain areas of attention which are common for the
electronically controlled ME engines and the camshaft
controlled MC engines. In this paper, we also focus on
cylinder condition of large bore engines, lifting bracket
cracks on large bore engine bedplates and cracks in the
frst generation of welded cylinder frames.
Over the years, bearings, especially main bearings, have
also been an area of concern. However, this issue has
generally been solved. Therefore, we will not focus on
bearings in this paper.

Cylinder condition, large bore engines
In general, we experience very satisfactory wear fgures
on both cylinder liners and piston rings on large bore
engines. This has made it possible to extend overhaul
intervals and when applying condition based overhaul
(CBO), strategy overhaul intervals above 32,000 hours (5
years) can be obtained. This is described in our service
letter SL07-483/HRR, Ref. [2], and further in the paper
Service Experience 2008, MAN B&W Engines, Ref.
[1]. However, from time to time, the general good wear
fgures are disturbed by cylinder liner scuffng. The
reasons for cylinder liner scuffng are many, and often
more than one reason is involved. The following major
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reasons for cylinder liner scuffng include:

Borepolishduetosurplusofalkaliadditive(excessive
lubrication)
Broken down oil flm as a result of too rapid load
changes
Wateringressduetoineffcientwaterseparation
Cat fnes in the fuel, wear out of the CL grooves/
broken rings
Running-inproblems.

Lately, we have had to focus on running-in problems,
typically at running hours between 500 and 1,000. The
reason for the running-in problems is the piston ring
quality in combination with the cylinder liner surface
quality. Fig. 14 shows a severe case of running-in
problems due to embedded iron on the outside of the
running-in alu-coat layer, peeling-off of the alu-coat/iron
layer and subsequent scuffng. A detailed analysis of
such problems has led to increased focus on:

Pistonringquality
Linersurfacequality/fnish.

Fig. 14: Increased focus on piston ring quality and liner surface quality

Fig. 15 shows cross sections of piston rings with iron and
cermet (delaminated) layers positioned on top of the alu-
coat layer during running-in leading to unstable cylinder
condition caused by the quality of the cermet coating.

Fig. 15: Piston ring quality

Fig. 16 shows an example of off-spec. honing of the
cylinder liner surface. The honed area must nominally be
50% of the liner surface. As can be seen on the photo,
the honed area is much smaller resulting in much tougher
running-in and an increased production of liner-iron. The
photo shows an unused spare cylinder liner on a vessel
where cylinder liner scuffng has occurred.
Fig. 16: Cylinder liner quality: insuffcient plateau honing
Cracks in the bedplate lifting bracket of K98
engines
In 2008, cracks in the lifting bracket on K98 bedplates
were discovered on engines produced 5-7 years earlier,
Fig. 17. Soon after the frst cracks were discovered, a
so-called Circular Letter to all owners/operators of K98
engines was issued, see Fig. 18. In this letter we asked
for help to inspect for lifting bracket cracks. Furthermore,
we informed about preventive countermeasures, which
consist of burr grinding of the weld seams on the aftmost
and foremost brackets. Also, a repair procedure was
developed when the cracks frst occurred. A modifed
bracket profle has been designed for new engines,
Fig. 19.

Fig. 17: Lifting bracket cracks

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Fig. 18: Circular letter: K98 lifting bracket cracks
Fig. 19: Lifting bracket cracks: design update

Due to the high number of K98 engines in service, these
rectifcations are still ongoing and, fortunately, we are
able to do this work without disturbing the operation of
the vessels involved.
Welded cylinder frames
As an alternative to cast iron cylinder frames a welded
version of the cylinder frame has been introduced.
Fig. 20 shows a 7-cylinder welded cylinder frame with
an integrated scavenge air receiver. The frst generation
of the welded cylinder frame showed, in some cases,
cracks originating from the stay bolt covers, Fig. 21. A
new bent type stay bolt cover has been designed, and
attachment to the main cylinder frame structure at a
position with lower stress level has been realised.

Fig. 20: Welded cylinder frame with integrated scavenge air receiver
102
|
Fig. 21: Welded cylinder frame: fatigue crack
originating from stay bolt covers
Fig. 22 shows the newest version of the welded cylinder
frame for a K80ME-C Mk 9. On the exhaust side, the
bent type stay bolt cover is applied, and on the pump side
the stay bolt cover is omitted.

Fig. 22: Welded cylinder frame: old and
new type stay bolt cover designs

We are confdent that the crack problems related to the
stay bolt cover plates have now been eliminated. For
engines in service with frst generation welded cylinder
frames, repair work is in progress.

LOW SULPHUR FUEL OPERATION

MAN B&W two-stroke engines can operate on both
heavy fuel oils (HFOs) with a varying amount of sulphur,
marine diesel oil (MDO) and marine gas oil (MGO). All
fuels are specifed in accordance with ISO 8217 and
CIMAC recommendation 21. Also bio fuels (with separate
fuel specifcation) are now used on MAN B&W two-
stroke engines.

Local and international restrictions on sulphur emissions
are the reason why an increased focus on low sulphur
fuels is seen today. Sulphur emissions can be limited in
two ways:

1. By making rules for a maximum amount of sulphur
in the fuel. Fig. 23 shows the road-map for such
legislation globally and locally in so-called SECAs
(Sulphur Emission Control Areas)

2. By applying abatement technologies on board the
vessels allowing the vessels to continue operating on
a high sulphur content HFO. The driving force for such
technologies is the large price difference between
various HFOs and distillates, see Fig. 24.

Fig. 23: Sulphur reduction road map

Fig. 24: Cost difference: HFO vs. distillates

When running on low sulphur fuels, a number of issues
of interest in relation to operational aspects can be
mentioned. Many of these are dealt with in detail in our
service letter, SL09-515/CXR, Ref. [3]. These issues are
discussed one by one in the following.

A. Catfnes in low sulphur HFOs
From a large number of bunker analyses it can be seen
that there is a tendency towards a higher amount of
catfines in fuels with lower sulphur contents. This
requires increased focus on optimal function of the fuel

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103
treatment plants on board vessels operating on low
sulphur fuels.
B. Cylinder lubrication and low sulphur fuels
It is well-established that MAN B&W two-stroke
engines, to a certain degree, need cylinder oil feed rates
proportional to the sulphur content in the fuel. This is due
to the fact that we prefer to have a controlled amount of
cold corrosion on the cylinder liner wall. However, we
also have other requirements for lubrication apart from
controlling the acid neutralisation. These requirements
presently put a minimum limit to the feed rate of 0.6 g/
kWh. Fig. 25 illustrates the degree of over-additivation
when operating on various cylinder oils (various BN
numbers), and it can be seen that the need for lower BN
cylinder oils will persist as fuel sulphur content limits are
tightened.

Fig. 25: Low sulphur fuel operation: need for lower BN oil in cylinder
C. Coping with low sulphur fuel in the design of the
combustion chamber
Design-wise, we can lower the cylinder liner temperature
by increasing the cooling intensity of the cylinder liner. By
doing this, we can provoke an increased amount of cold
corrosion when operating on low sulphur fuels. For some
engine types, we have introduced such colder cylinder
liners. Also the piston ring pack has undergone changes
which will optimise the performance in a low sulphur fuel
regime. We have introduced cermet coating on nos. 1
and 4 piston rings to make them less dependent on cold
corrosion on the cylinder liner wall.

D. Viscosity issues
Viscosity has been dealt with in detail in the above-
mentioned service letter on distillate fuel operation,
Ref. [3]. When using distillates in order to adhere to the
rules for sulphur emission, viscosity often becomes an
issue. Our updated instructions regarding fuel viscosity
are illustrated in Fig. 26. Detailed recommendations
regarding checks to be made before entering ports and
other narrow water passages are outlined in the service
letter, Ref. [3]. Also fuel cooling systems are presented.
The aim of these systems is to lower the temperature in
order to maintain viscosity of 2 cSt at engine inlet.

Fig. 26: Fuel temperature vs. viscosity
E. Burning characteristics for low sulphur fuels
From time to time, we hear that slow burning
characteristics of fuels give rise to concern. These slow
burning cases are more frequently seen in cases of low
sulphur fuels. However, such slow burning characteristics
will not affect MAN B&W two-stroke engines. The
reason is the slow speed concept with the relatively long
combustion duration. However, for four-stroke medium
and high speed engines the matter is different and slow
burning fuels may cause trouble on these engine types.

F. Abatement technologies
We are involved in various projects where scrubbers
are used to clean the exhaust gas for sulphur and other
particles. The driving force behind these projects is the
wish to maintain operation on the cheaper HFO, Fig. 24.

G. Gas burning two-stroke engines: ME-GI
Another future way of avoiding sulphur in the exhaust is
to change from diesel fuel to natural gas. In this way, SO
X
can be reduced by typically 90%. We believe that natural
gas will be the future fuel not only on LNG carriers, but
probably also on other commercial types of vessels.

LAyING-UP OF VESSELS

Because of the current economic condition in the world,
we have been requested to renew instructions in relation
104
|
to laying-up of vessels. We have recently issued two
service letters on this topic. The frst one, SL09-502/SBJ,
Ref. [4], deals with the so-called hot laying-up where
auxiliary engines are kept in operation continuously in
order to generate the necessary power to run, from time
to time, as for example the main lube oil pumps for the
main engine. The second service letter, SL09-510/SBJ,
Ref. [5], deals with cold laying-up of vessels where also
the auxiliary engines are closed down. In this case, power
for dehumidifers, various pumps and the turning gear
for the main engine is typically taken from an on deck
containerised power pack.

A number of items are to be considered in relation to
the method of laying-up and some decisions are needed.
Some of these items are:

Modeoflaying-up(hotorcold)
Maintenance work to be done during laying-up
period
Levelofmanningduringlaying-upperiod
Customised laying-up check list (to assist when
ending laying-up period)
Estimateoftimetore-establishengineoperationafter
laying-up period.

In detail, our service letters deal with:

a. Corrosion and how to avoid it. The use of
dehumidifers is discussed. The use of preservation
oils on machined surfaces inside as well as outside
the engine compartments is described. During the
monthly turning of the main engine, preservation
oils have to be re-established. Both main engine and
auxiliary engines are dealt with in this respect.

b. Detailed instructions for preservation of main engine
and auxiliary engines, including preservation of supply
systems, are outlined in the service letters. Special
attention to bacterial growth in fuel oils may be
needed with use of biocides to control the bacteria
level.
c. Turbocharger preservation is also dealt with. Here,
makers distinguish between short laying-up periods,
below 6 months, where the rotor may stay in the T/C
casing, and longer than 6 months laying-up periods
where the complete rotor has to be dismantled,
cleaned and stored according to the makers
instructions.
d. Conservation of electrical components has its own
chapter in the service letters. This is especially
relevant when dealing with laying-up of electronically
controlled ME engines.

e. Recommended routine checks during the laying-up
period is described in detail. Examples of checks
are daily recording of the humidity level, monthly
oil and cooling water circulation, pre-lubrication of
intermediate and propeller shaft bearing before turning
of the main engine, monthly check and recording of
water content in the lube oil and monthly check of the
cooling water inhibitor level.

We are still gaining relevant experience in relation to
laying-up of vessels and a revision/extension of the
service letters is expected to be launched by the end of
2009.

SLOW STEAMING

Slow steaming has also become very relevant due to the
fnancial situation in the world. Also on this topic, we have
issued service letters relevant for MAN B&W two-stroke
engines, SL08-501/SBE, Ref. [6], and SL09-511/MTS,
Ref. [7]. The reason for the desire for slow steaming can
be seen on Fig. 27. A vast amount of fuel can be saved
per tonnes-mile of seaborne travel when reducing the
ship speed and thereby the engine load.

Fig. 27: Low load operation
Fortunately, we have been able to support continuous
operation down to 10% load without any engine
modifcations, except the use of slide fuel valves.


|
105
There are various means to optimise operation at low
load. Some of these are:

Partloadoptimisation,Fig.28
Turbocharger with VTA (Variable Turbine Area),
Fig. 29
Sequentialturbocharging,Fig.30
Turbochargercut-out,Fig.31.

Fig. 28: Part optimisation ME/ME-C and MC/MC-C
Fig. 29: Turbocharger with variable turbine area (VTA)
Fig. 30: Sequential turbocharging
Fig. 31: Turbocharger cut-out
All methods will increase the scavenge air pressure at
part load. The methods are more or less easy/costly to
retroft on vessels in service. However, it should be kept
in mind that this optimisation only gives the last marginal
beneft of slow steaming. The major beneft comes just
from moving the speed-handle down.

CONCLUSION

This paper has given an update on recent service
experience and, in addition, it has touched upon other
areas of interest for the operators of MAN B&W two-
stroke engines forced upon the industry owing to
legislation as well as because of the prevailing fnancial
situation in the world today. We will continue our
efforts to adopt and optimise our product under these
circumstances.

REFERENCES

1. Service Experience 2008, MAN B&W Engines, 5510-
0039-00ppr, Jun 2008
2. SL07-483/HRR, Condition-based Piston Overhaul,
August 2007
3. SL09-515/CXR, Guidelines on Operation on Distillate
Fuels, September 2009
4. SL09-502/SBJ, Laying up vessels, January 2009
5. SL09-510/SBJ, Laying up vessels, April 2009
6. SL08-501/SBE, Low Load Update, October 2008
7. SL09-511/MTS, Low Load Operation, May 2009
106
|
Marine engineering students need to understand the
theoretical concepts of various engineering processes
besides operational competence. A missing link is
found existing between mathematical principles learnt
in the classroom and the experience gained at the
simulator environment. The procedures of mathematical
development and its application in engine room simulation
are not well understood by students. Teaching aids are
very much needed to help bridge the gap of understanding
basic concepts and principles behind an engine room
simulation. A spreadsheet based mathematical model
is developed based on the ISO proposed guidelines to
evaluate the brake specifc fuel consumption (bsfc) for
a typical marine engine. The controlling parameters
such as fuel qualities and operating conditions in
determining the bsfc are identifed and described. The
mathematical model also takes the ambient sensitivity
into consideration. The output graphical information has
enhanced the training and assessment of students in the
engine room simulator.
Ivan C K Tam & Prasanta Mukherjee, Singapore Maritime Academy, Singapore Polytechnic
Rajan Bhandari, Executive Ship Management Pte Ltd
Using Mathematical Modelling Technique
to Enhance Engine Room Simulation
Training and Assessment
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Experimental Data from Simulator
The importance and benefts of simulator training are
well documented and recognized by both industry and
IMO. As a result, engine room simulators have been
widely used to train the present generation of marine
engineering students to achieve a high level of operational
competency. One of the engine processes of importance
to marine engineering students is the evaluation of engine
power and the brake specifc fuel consumption (bsfc) as
stated in the IMO model course [R1] and STCW95 [R10].
Experimental data on engine torque, speed, power,
fuel fow rate and bsfc can be obtained from an engine
room simulator which is assumed to be close to practical
situation.
Figure 1: Typical experimental data on bsfc reported from engine room simulator
|
107
1.2 Engineering Formula of bsfc from
Textbook [R2]
For a given torque and speed, the power may be
calculated with the standard equation relating torque in
[Nm], rotational speed in [RPM] and power [W],
Calculation of the brake specifc fuel oil consumption
(bsfc) requires the engine power and the consumed fuel
oil amount known for a certain period of time.
It is common to quote bsfc in units of [g/kWh] in marine
practice. These two formulae are well conversed by
students in classroom environment. The results can be
taken and compared to those obtained from engineering
formulae and mathematical model.

Fig. 2: Students are given part task training and
familiarisation at engine room simulator
Fig. 3: Senior students are trained in full mission
engine simulator control room

Fig.4: Students are trained and assessed under
realistic engine room environment
2 MATHEMATICAL MODELS
The textbook formula though a quick and simple
solution, any further consideration of ambient effects
and fuel quality will be too laborious without the use
of programming. However, the full computer program
development will be too complex and the knowledge of a
language is a prerequisite. Thus, a spreadsheet approach
is proposed to show students engine simulation from the
frst principle. The controlling parameters in the engine
power and bsfc are identifed and considered. Correction
factors based on the ISO Standards are compensated for
evaluation of ambient condition sensitive data are also
demonstrated.
2.1 Fuel Flow and Density Correction
Since the fuel flow measurement on board ships
is obtained by fow meter in volume units, it will be
necessary to know the oil density, in order to convert to
mass units. The oil density is a function of temperature
which corresponds to the temperature at measuring
point, i.e. fow meter. The density at the measuring point
can be determined from bunker specifcation. Normally, in
bunker specifcation, the density is indicated at 15C. The
correction factors are tabulated in Tables 53A and 53B
of the revised API-ASTM-IP Petroleum Measurement
Tables (API 2540; ASTM D 1250; IP200). Correlation
equation can be used to estimate the variation between
oil density and temperature of hydrocarbon fuids [R1,
R3].

P [W] =
[Nm][RPM]
60
2

bsfc =
m
[gs
1
]
P[W]
108
|
Where
t
= oil density at temperature tC [kg/m
3
]
15
= oil density at base temperature 15C [kg/m
3
]
V
t
= oil volume at temperature tC [m
3
]
V
15
= oil volume at base temperature 15C [m
3
]
t
= tC 15C
15
= tangent thermal expansion coeffcient per C at
base temperature 15C.
The tangent coeffcient differs for each of the major
groups of hydrocarbons. It is obtained from the following
relationship:
Where K
0
and K
1
are constants equal to 186.969 and
0.48618 respectively for fuel oils with density range 839
to 1075 [kg/m
3
]. The consumed oil quantity in kilogram
is obtained from the product of measured volume and
density.
2.2 Correction of Lower Calorifc Value
In order to compare fuel consumption measurements
carried out for various types of fuel oil, allowance must
be made for the differences in the lower calorifc value
(LCV) of the fuel concerned. Normally, gas oil of an
approximately LCV 42,707 kJ/kg will be used for testing
on the test bed. If no other instructions have been given
by the ship owner, it is recommended to convert to this
value [R4].
Correction factor for LCV for bunker oil = LCV 42,707
On the other hand, the lower calorifc value (LCV) of
bunker oil may not be available in fuel analysis. LCV in
[MJ/kg], of residual fuel oil can be calculated based on
density at 15C and sulphur, ash and water content from
the formula in ISO 8217:2005(F), [R11].
LCV = (52.19 8.802
15
2
x10
6
) x
[ 1 - 0.01( w
w
+ w
a
+ w
s
) ] + 0.0942 w
s

Where
15
is the density of fuel at 15C, in kilograms
per cubic metre;
w
w
is the water content, expressed as a mass
fraction;
w
a
is the ash content, expressed as a mass
fraction;
w
s
is the sulphur content, expressed as a mass
fraction.
2.3 Power Adjustment for Ambient Conditions
The engine power and specifc fuel consumption are both
affected by ambient conditions such as air temperature,
coolant temperature, air pressure and humidity [R8].
All these factors have to be considered and referred to
baseline condition if accuracy is needed.
P
x
= P
r
P
x
brake power under ambient condition on site
P
r
brake power under standard reference conditions
2.3.1 Power Adjustment Factor,
= k 0.7 (1 k) ( 1 /
m
-1)
where
m
is the mechanical effciency. For example, =
0.765 if
m
= 0.8 and k = 0.8
2.3.2 Ratio of Indicated Power, k
a, m, n, s are factors and exponents to be stated by
engine manufacturers.
P
x
ambient total barometric pressure on site [kPa]
P
r
standard reference total barometric pressure [kPa]
P
sx
ambient saturated water vapour pressure on site
[kPa]
P
sr
standard reference saturated water vapour pressure
[kPa]
T
r
standard reference ambient air thermodynamic
temperature [K]
T
x
ambient air thermodynamic temperature on site
[K]
T
cr
standard reference charge air coolant thermodynamic
temperature [K]
T
cx
ambient charge air coolant thermodynamic
temperature on site [K]
x
ambient relative humidity on site [%]
r
ambient reference relative humidity [%]
15
=
V
15
V
t
= exp[
15
t (1+ 0.8
15
t )]
15
=
K
0
+K
1
15
15
2

k = [
P
x
a
x
P
sx
P
r
a
r
P
sr
]
m
[
T
r
T
x
]
n
[
T
cr
T
cx
]
s
|
109
Figure 5: Marine Diesel Engine ISO Specifc Fuel Consumption Calculation
1

Engine Speed rpm 74.00

Engine brake Torque kNm 2161.07

Total Power
Engine Power kW 16746.69

Supply Flowmeter
Measured Consumption m
3
10.98
Measuring period hr 3.00
Measured temperature
0
C 119.00
dt- difference from 15C
0
C 104.00
Density of oil at measuring point Kg/m3 863.70 IP200, API 2540, ASTM D 1250
Supply Fuel flow for one hour Kg/h 3159.71

Fuel Data
Density at 15
o
C Kg/m3 936.40
Sulphur % 3.00

Lower Calorific Value
Bunker fuel kJ/kg 40975.64 ISO 8217:2005(E)

Fuel Consumption for one hour
Fuel Supply-Fuel Return flow for one hour Kg/h 3159.71

Specific fuel consumption
Bunker fuel SFC g/kWh 188.68

SFC corrected to ISO Standard Gas Oil
Gas oil LCV kJ/kg 42707.00
LCV Corrected SFC g/kWh 181.03

ISO Standard Reference Conditions
Total barometric pressure kPa 100.00 ISO 15550
Air temperature
0
C 25.00
Relative humidity % 30.00
Charge air coolant temperature
0
C 25.00
Water vapour pressure kPa 0.94 Table B1 ISO 3046-1:2002 (E)

Site Ambient Condition
Total barometric pressure kPa 101.30
Air temperature
0
C 35.00
Relative humidity % 70.00
Charge air coolant temperature
0
C 45.00
Water vapour pressure (fXPsx) kPa 3.90 Table B1 ISO 3046-1:2002 (E)

Ratio of indicated power k 3.5155198669 equation 5 ISO 3046-1
Power adjustment factor 3.7111714121
Fuel consumption recalculation factor 0.9472803804 equation 8 ISO 3046-1

ISO Corrected Specific Fuel
Consumption g/kWh 191.10 equation 7 ISO 3046-1
g/bhph 142.56

110
|
2.4 Fuel Consumption Adjustment for Ambient
Condition
bsfc
x
= bsfcr
where = k /
bsfc
x
= brake specifc fuel consumption under
ambient conditions
bsfc
r
= brake specifc fuel consumption under
standard reference conditions
The detailed description on compensation gives students
an insight of ambient condition on bsfc. The impact is
expected to be small but signifcant for students to
understand though the calculation is usually neglected
on board ship.
3. NUMERICAL RESULTS
A typical set of data at 95% load is input to the
mathematical model and the numerical results generated
are shown in Fig. 2. The results show good agreement
with textbook formula as well as results performance at
simulator. The bsfc estimated by the mathematical model
is slightly higher due to the compensation of ambient
temperature and humidity on site with reference to the
standard conditions. These steps are repeated for 25%,
50%, 75%, 100% and 110% load and all generate results
show good agreement for all conditions. The effect of
fuel quality and ambient condition on the bsfc ranges
from 2% to 5%.
4. CONCLUSION
A spreadsheet based on the ISO proposed mathematical
model was developed to evaluate the specifc fuel
consumption (sfc) for a typical marine engine. The
controlling parameters such as operating conditions,
fuel quality as well as ambient conditions in determining
the sfc were identifed and explained in procedures. The
spreadsheet approach was used to replace complex
computer programming and found to be a powerful
tool in mathematical modelling and engine simulation.
Generated results from the mathematical model were
compared with textbook and engine room simulator. The
non-linear behaviour of these engineering processes were
demonstrated in the graphical output and appreciated
easily by students. The teaching aids helped students get
an insight of the mathematical principles and concepts in
the development of engine room simulation.
5. REFERENCES
1. IMO Model Course 7.02 Thermodynamics and Heat
Transmission Engine Trial Data, (IMO Sales No.
T702E), London 1999.
2. Rayner Joel, Basic Engineering Thermodynamics in
SI Units, Harlow, Longman, 5th ed., 1996
3. Institute of Petroleum, Petroleum Measurement
Manual, Part VII Density, Section 2, Continuous
Density Measurement, Nov., 1983. London
4. MAN B&W Diesel A/S, Instructions Operation,
Edition 01, 50-108, Operation Plate 70611, 2005

|
111
Rajan Bhandari
MIMarEST, First Class (Motor),
MSNAMES.
Email: rajan229@gmail.com
5. CIMAC, Recommendations for Diesel Engine
Acceptance Tests, Jan 1961
6. American Petroleum Institute, Petroleum
Measurement Tables, Volume XI/XII 1982
7 American Petroleum Institute, Petroleum
Measurement Tables, Volume VIII 1982
8. International Organisation for Standardisation,
Reciprocating Internal Combustion Engines
Performance, ISO 3046-1:2002(E)
9. ISO, Internal Combustion Engines Determination
and Method for the Measurement of Engine Power
General Requirements, ISO 15550: 2002(E)
10. IMO, International Convention on STCW, 1995,
(IMO Sales No. 938)
11. ISO, Petroleum Products Fuels- Class (F),
Specifcations of Marine Fuels, ISO 8217:2005 (E),
3
rd
Ed., 2005

*This paper was presented at ICERS9, 1 4 November,
2009, USMMA, Kings Point, N.Y., USA. The manuscript
is adapted for publication in SNAMES 31
st
Annual Journal
2009.
Ivan C K Tam
BEng (Hons), PhD., MIMechE.,
MIMarEST., CMarEng., CEng.
Email: ivan_tam@sp.edu.sg
Prasanta Mukherjee
BE (Mech), Extra 1st Class(UK),
MIE., MIMarEST., MSNAMES.
Email: p_mukherjee@sp.edu.sg
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Nominal Roll
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Kho Liang Kiat
Koh Boon Wah, Desmond
Koh Guan Hwa
Koh Kian Chiang, Nicholas
Koh Ser Eng
Kuik Sow Hong, Simon
Kumar Ashok
Kumaran Rajkrish
Kuss Olaf
Kwek Winson
Lai Loy Mun, Norman
Lam yen Chin
Lazar Sunu
Lee Chong, Andrew
Lee Fui Ling
Lee Kok Wah
Lee Kong Loo, Joseph
Leo Meng Si
Leong yew Choe, Ronnie
Leow Ban Tat
Liew yuen Cheng
Lim Cheng Chin, Alvin
Lim Dow Hoon
Lim Jit Hap, Wellman
Lim yee Beng, Roger
Lim yeow Meng (Lin you Ming)
Lin yoon Shiang
Loke yuen Piew
Loo Thiam Teng, Bernard
Low Jin Kiat
Low Kok Chiang
Low Kuah Khia, Eugene
Low Tow Ling
Loy Ah Wei
Lui Nai Fatt, David
Lum Kin Wah
Mahfuzur Rahman
Mak yeuw Wah, Andrew
Meleth Rajendran
Menezes Denis L (Capt.)
Merchant Aziz Amirali
Mohamad Shariff Kamaruzaman
Mohammad Ali
Mohan Balakrishnan
Mookerjea Sridev
Mulloth Ashok
Muzahid Firoz Al
Navin Mehtani
Neo Cheow Hian
Neo Tiong Tian, Nicholas
Ng Chai Ju
Ng Chin Siong, Steven
Ng Kean Seng
Ng Kim yock
Ng Kwang Chiau
Ng Poh yong, Paul
Ngoh yeen Jock
Oei Chooi Leng, Dennis
Ong Eng Lee
Pang Kwee Sing
Panzer Michael
Petrie Christopher Harrison
Premanathan S
Quah Teck Huat
Quek Siu Siong, Benny
Radakrishnan Ramachandran s/o
Radukanovic Dimitrije
Rajwani Chandru Sirumal
Ranasinghe Don Mahendrasena
Rangan Krishnan Harihara Kasthuri
Rashid Md Harun AR
Ray Amit
Roy Jayant
Saha Makaraksha
Sam Chee Leong
Samynathan Asothan
Sangaran Gopal
Sanwer Dito
Seah Ah Kuan
See Chee Wei
Seet Lee Kwang, Tony
Seow Chih Wei, David
Sharma Vishnu Parmanand
Sheri Lalchand Kishinchand
Silva De Araujo Rodrigo Nuno
Sim Choon Hock
Sim Sian Chong, John
Sim Sze Tung
Singh Suresh Kumar
Sio Beng Huat
Sithamparan Sukurmaran (S. Kumar)
Solhaug Gisle
Song Keng yong, Kevin
Song Pang Lim
Srivastava Anup
Surajit Chanda
Tam Chi Keung, Ivan (Dr.)
Tan Boon Sai
Tan Chor Hiong
Tan Hiong Chan, Daniel
Tan Jyh Shu
|
115
Tan Keng Hock, Kelvin
Tan Kheng Siang, Steven
Tan Tai Kia, Alvin
Tan Te Tong, Tony
Tan Wai Sing, Vincent
Tan Xiaoming
Tan yew Kwang
Tan Chin Aik, Tim
Tang Sau Weng
Tanubrata Wanasurya
Tay Kwee Sim, Patrick
Teng yow Seng, Kelvin
Teo Hai Heng
Teo Keong Kok
Tham Boon Wan
Thampan E K Sadasivan
Thong Sew Kait
Thong Weng Choy
Tian Dan
Ting Ngook Choon
Toh Choon Phuang
Toh Wai Hong, Roy
Vadakepadavil Joshi Mathew
Wang yang Feng
Wee Pan Ann, Ernest
Wong Fee Min, Alfred
Wong Han Chong
Wong Haw
Wong Hong Lee
Wong Kin Hoong
Wong Kong Meng
Wong Len Poh
Wong Meng Hoe
Wong Peng Soon, Edwin (Capt.)
Wong yat Heng, Ricky
Xiong Kaihua
Xu Da Dong
yan yim Tong
yee yew Seng
yeo Chin Huat
yeong Li Huey, Celeste (Ms)
ying Hing Leong
yuan Jun
Zhang Liang
ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
Adrian Lau
Amid Najeeha
Ang Boon yen
Balasubraniam Prakash s/o
Carvalho Roby David
Cheong Seng Kok, Gerry
Chew Aik Leng
Chia Cher Kiang, Jason
Chia Moi Poh
Foo Sey Thong
Goh Wee yong, Ben
Iyinbo Isaac Omaretsuli
Kang Toh Seong
Koh Shu yong
Kok Chong Weng
Lee Chor yong
Lee Robert
Leong Tzun Kitt, Noel
Liang yee Choy, Jack
Lim Eng Keong
Lim Jit Cheng
Lim Ka-Wui, Gabriel
Lim Tiam Chye, George
Lim yew Teik, Simon
Loh Kai Hong, Nicky
Miao Miao
Menon Mohan Dass
Ng Cheng Thiam, Norman
Ng Tian Seng
Ong Kian Hoaw, Pat
Ramamurthy Devaraj s/o
Ramasamy Ramesh
Seow Eng Geh
Shanmugasundar Windersalam
Soo Kam Tatt
Soong Guo Shyong, Joshua
Subnis Amul Mohan
Sugumaran Sockalingam
Tan Ee yang
Tan Gerry
Tan Heng Knee
Tay Jason
Tan Kim Inn
Tan Meng Hock, Patrick
Tan Sheng Fook, Tony
Tan Suan San
Tang Kiam Seng, Francis
Tay Kim Seng, Bernard
Tin Suen yee, Ric
Toh yew Tee, Pearlyn
yeo Teck Chye
Waly Ibrahim
young ying
AFFILIATE
Gerry Tan
116
|
I would like to sincerely thank a few individuals who
have contributed to the successful publication of this
years Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers
Singapore (SNAMES) 31st Annual Journal. They are
Joan Chua, Executive Secretary of SNAMES, Publication
Committee Anis Hussain and Charles Fernandez, and the
Publisher, Tan Chin Kar of JMatrix Consulting Pte Ltd.
2009 has been a particularly fruitful year for the Publication
Committee. Over 15 papers of varying, interesting and
relevant subject matters from coping with the global
fnancial downturn to innovation in human resource, from
marine emissions to service experience have been
submitted. I want to thank each and every contributor,
whether individual, group and organisation.
In particular, I would like to extend a special Thank you
note to:

i) Keppel Offshore & Marine Technology Centre
(KOMtech), who has granted SNAMES the permission
to republish two of their key papers Design and
Construction of Icebreakers for Operation in Barents
Sea and Marine Emissions: Issues, Challenges and
Potential Solutions.
ii) BW Group Ltd Navigating Stormy Waters.
The papers published in this Journal are categorised
under two sections the strategic papers and technical
papers. I trust you will fnd them useful and insightful.

Editors Note
I am also very grateful to the various marine-related
companies who have landed their unreserved support
over the years to the Journal and SNAMES through their
advertisement placements in the Journal. This year, over
14 advertisements are being featured, many of them full
page advertisements.
Finally, I believe that as we witness the steady recovery
in the global economy, we can together be hopeful that
the marine industry will navigating itself towards a future
of sustainability and growth.
Together with my colleagues at SNAMES, I wish you the
very best in the coming years.
Sincerely
Low Kok Chiang
Chairman, Publication Committee

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path 5/5/09 3:11 PM Page 1

Steering Towards Sustainability and Growth

Hui Koon EntErprisE (ptE) Ltd

3.0 SHIPPING AS CAPITAL INVESTMENT

Container Ship's Cost Variation

effect to double digit growth. The golden era of shipping

Steering Towards Sustainability and Growth

VWSG1 VWSG1 VWSG1

started at a later time. It can be noted that the stress

Figure 1: Shaft Power-Speed Curve

petroleum industry service laboratories are in a position

Figure 2: Surface corrosion of a ships tank

Figure 3: Tank dewatering system

A biocide can also be used as a secondary method of

Steering Towards Sustainability and Growth

Steering Towards Sustainability and Growth

Steering Towards Sustainability and Growth

Steering Towards Sustainability and Growth

Steering Towards Sustainability and Growth

Steering Towards Sustainability and Growth

Steering Towards Sustainability and Growth

Steering Towards Sustainability and Growth

Steering Towards Sustainability and Growth

Steering Towards Sustainability and Growth

Mecomb Singapore Limited, a member of the Sime

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