IACS acts on ‘MOL Comfort’ report

The IACS will also study the recommendations in the report, issues in Japan by the Committee on Large Container Ship Safety (CLCSS), and will make public the results of this examination.

An expert group on structural safety of container ships was already launched by IACS back in 2014 to carry out a post MOL Comfort review and take into account a number of past casualties.

This work has resulted in the development of two new IACS Unified Requirements (UR’s): UR S11A, which is a longitudinal strength standard for Containerships, and URS 34, dealing with functional requirements for direct analysis by Finite Element Method of Container ships, including a set of loading conditions.

IACS says this ongoing work had already taken into account the CLCSS recommendations that these UR’s do take into account the effect of lateral loads on bi‐axial buckling of stiffened panels (a phenomenon preceding loss of ultimate strength as correctly indicated in the report) and whipping on vertical bending strength. They also already consider the strength of the ship under specified operating and environmental conditions corresponding to its entire life.

These two UR’s will be finalised in the coming months.

IACS Unified Requirements are minimum common technical requirements to be incorporated into the rules of each individual member. UR’s are not intended to address all the strength aspects of hull structures, which remains the function and responsibility of each class society.