Assessment of IACS-CSR Implicit Safety Level for Buckling Strength of Plate Panels for Double Hull Tankers

摘要

Structural reliability methods are increasingly being used in the design of ship structures, in particular as a tool to calibrate design formulations in order to satisfy predefined target safety levels. The present study aims at applying these methods to assess the implicit safety level of a buckling strength requirement for plate panels under uniaxial compression implemented in the IACS Common Structural Rules (CSR) for double hull oil tankers. The paper presents the procedure used to assess the implicit safety level of the plates, which includes the optimization of the scantlings so that the minimum strength requirement is satisfied. A first-order reliability formulation is adopted, and stochastic models proposed in the literature are used to quantify the uncertainty in the relevant design variables. A sample of five oil tankers representative of the range of application of the IACS-CSR design rules is considered. The effect of corrosion in the implicit safety level and the importance of each design variable through sensitivity analysis are quantified.