Ship Design and Stability

The IMO instruments governing safe ship designs

The work of the IMO on ship design is mainly carried by the Sub-Committee on Ship Design and
Construction (SDC) which is directed by the Maritime Safety Committee as the parent IMO
organ. The safe design of a ship is primarily regulated in SOLAS chapter II-1, parts A (General) ,
A-1 (structure of ships) and B (subdivision and stability), the 1966 Load Line Convention and the
1988 Protocol relating thereto, the 1969 Tonnage Measurement Convention and the
International Code on Intact Stability, 2008.

SOLAS chapter II-1

SOLAS chapter II-1 requires ships to comply with safety regulations concerning the construction,
structure, subdivision, stability, the machinery and electrical installations on board ships. IMO's
Sub-Committee on Ship Design and Construction (SDC) is the responsible IMO body tasked to
develop any necessary amendments to relevant conventions and other mandatory and non-
mandatory instruments, as well as the preparation of new mandatory and non-mandatory
instruments, guidelines and recommendations, for:

design, construction, subdivision and stability, buoyancy, sea-keeping and arrangements,

including evacuation matters, of all types of ships, vessels, craft and mobile units covered by
IMO instruments;

testing and approval of construction and materials;

load line matters;

tonnage measurement matters;

safety of fishing vessels and fishermen; and

survey and certification.

1966 Load Line Convention

Introduction and history

It has long been recognized that limitations on the draught to which a ship may be loaded make
a significant contribution to her safety. These limits are given in the form of freeboards, which
constitute, besides external weathertight and watertight integrity, the main objective of the
Convention.

The first International Convention on Load Lines, adopted in 1930, was based on the principle of
reserve buoyancy, although it was recognized then that the freeboard should also ensure
adequate stability and avoid excessive stress on the ship's hull as a result of overloading. In the
1966 Load Lines convention, adopted by IMO, provisions are made determining the freeboard of
ships by subdivision and damage stability calculations. The regulations take into account the
potential hazards present in different zones and different seasons. The technical annex
contains several additional safety measures concerning doors, freeing ports, hatchways and
other items. The main purpose of these measures is to ensure the watertight integrity of ships'
hulls below the freeboard deck. All assigned load lines must be marked amidships on each side
of the ship, together with the deck line. Ships intended for the carriage of timber deck cargo are
assigned a smaller freeboard as the deck cargo provides protection against the impact of
waves

Load Lines 1966 - Annexes

The Convention includes Annex I, divided into four Chapters:

Chapter I - General;

Chapter II - Conditions of assignment of freeboard;

Chapter III - Freeboards;

Chapter IV - Special requirements for ships assigned timber freeboards.

Annex II covers Zones, areas and seasonal periods.

Annex III contains certificates, including the International Load Line Certificate.

Adoption of tacit amendment procedure 1988

The 1988 Protocol

Adoption: 11 November 1988

Entry into force: 3 February 2000

The Protocol was primarily adopted in order to harmonize the Convention's survey and
certification requirement with those contained in SOLAS and MARPOL 73/78.
All three instruments require the issuing of certificates to show that requirements have been
met and this has to be done by means of a survey which can involve the ship being out of
service for several days.

The harmonized system alleviates the problems caused by survey dates and intervals between
surveys which do not coincide, so that a ship should no longer have to go into port or repair yard
for a survey required by one Convention shortly after doing the same thing in connection with
another instrument.

The 1988 Load Lines Protocol revised certain regulations in the technical Annexes to the Load
Lines Convention and introduced the tacit amendment procedure (which was already applicable
to the 1974 SOLAS Convention).Amendments to the Convention may be considered either by
the Maritime Safety Committee or by a Conference of Parties.

Amendments must be adopted by a two-thirds majority of Parties to the Convention present and
voting. Amendments enter into force six months after the deemed date of acceptance - which
must be at least a year after the date of communication of adoption of amendments unless
they are rejected by one-third of Parties. Usually, the date from adoption to deemed acceptance
is two years.

Intact Stability Code

IMO has long developed intact stability criteria for various types of ships, culminating in the
completion of the Code on Intact Stability for All Types of Ships Covered by IMO Instruments (IS
Code) in 1993 (resolution A.749(18)) and later amendments thereto (resolution MSC.75(69)).
The IS Code included fundamental principles such as general precautions against capsizing
(criteria regarding metacentric height (GM) and righting lever (GZ)); weather criterion (severe
wind and rolling criterion); effect of free surfaces and icing; and watertight integrity. The IS
Code also addressed related operational aspects like information for the master, including
stability and operating booklets and operational procedures in heavy weather.

In 2008, the Maritime Safety Committee, at its eighty-fifth session, adopted the International
Code on Intact Stability, 2008 (2008 IS Code), following extensive considerations by the SLF Sub
-Committee and taking into account technical developments, to update the 1993 Intact Stability
Code. MSC 85 also adopted amendments to the SOLAS Convention and to the 1988 Load Lines
Protocol to make the 2008 IS Code mandatory, which entered into force on 1 July 2010. The
2008 IS Code provides, in a single document, both mandatory requirements and recommended
provisions relating to intact stability that will significantly influence the design and the overall
safety of ships.

Second Generation Intact Stability Criteria

Ships vary widely in type, size, operational profile and associated environmental conditions
which has made it difficult to develop generic dynamic stability criteria which are applicable for
all ships subject to the International Code on Intact Stability, 2008 as it has been acknowledged
that some ships are more at risk of encountering critical stability in waves than others.

The IMO is currently in the process of developing performance-based criteria for assessing five
dynamic stability failure modes in waves, namely, dead ship condition, excessive acceleration,
pure loss of stability, parametric rolling and surf-riding/broaching. One of the obstacles
encountered by the IMO has been that the physics and evaluation methods for these five
stability failure modes had not been well understood or developed when the mandatory intact
stability criteria were established.

The current draft Interim Guidelines on second generation intact stability criteria (Interim
Guidelines) have been finalized by the IMO Sub-Committee on Ship Design and Construction
(SDC) at its seventh session (3 to 7 February 2020) and awaiting approval at the next session of
the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC). The Interim character of the draft Guidelines reflect a
certain degree of uncertainty in the recommendations developed but it is the first standalone
instrument developed by IMO* to address dynamic stability failures building on best practices
and the most advanced scientific tools available. The methodologies contained in these Interim
guidelines are based on general first-principle approaches derived from the analysis of ship
dynamics and latest technology, as opposed to predominant use of casualty records which
form the basis of the mandatory intact stability criteria. For this reason, the presented dynamic
stability criteria may be considered as the second generation intact stability criteria. However, in
the development process, it was also necessary to simplify some of the assessment
methodologies and to perform some semi-empirical tuning.

Once MSC approves the Interim Guidelines on second generation intact stability criteria, they
may be used by Administrations to assess and approve ship designs which deviate from
conventional concepts. In order to facilitate the use of the Interim Guidelines the SDC Sub-
Committee is also in the process of developing associated Explanatory notes on the second
generation intact stability criteria. However, neither the Interim Guidelines nor their associated
Explanatory Notes are intended to be mandatory.

* Currently ship masters are advised to follow the Revised guidance to the master for avoiding
dangerous situations in adverse weather and sea conditions (MSC.1/Circ.1228)
Damage Stability

In 2006, MSC 82 adopted comprehensive amendments to SOLAS chapter II-1 in relation to

subdivision and damage stability requirements in order to harmonize the provisions for
passenger and cargo ships. The revision of SOLAS chapter II-1 was intensively debated over the
past decade by the SLF Sub-Committee, based on the "probabilistic" method of determining
damage stability, which is different from the previously used "deterministic" method. However,
although the method is different, the objective of both methods is the same as, i.e. “Ships shall
be as efficiently subdivided as is possible having regard to the nature of the service for which
they are intended. The degree of subdivision shall vary with the subdivision length of the ship
and with the service, in such manner that the highest degree of subdivision corresponds with
the ships of greatest subdivision length, primarily engaged in the carriage of passengers.”

The deterministic regulations for passenger ships in SOLAS were such that, based on the
assumed damage scenario (i.e. one-compartment or group of compartments flooding)
according to the ship’s factor of subdivision (function of length, number of passengers and
other elements), the maximum permissible length of a compartment (between two adjacent
bulkheads: subdivision) is obtained, which should ensure the ship remains afloat and stable.
The probabilistic requirements are such that the attained subdivision index A (A=Σpisi),
calculated as the summation of pi (the product of the probability that the one compartment or
group of compartments under consideration may be flooded) by the si(probability of survival
after flooding of the compartment or group of compartments in question), is not less than the
required subdivision index R (function of length).

The damage control plan and damage control booklet, which are required by SOLAS regulation II
1/19, are intended to provide ships’ officers with clear information on the ship’s watertight
subdivision and equipment related to maintaining the boundaries and effectiveness of the
subdivision so that, in the event of damage to the ship causing flooding, proper precautions can
be taken to prevent progressive flooding through openings therein and effective action can be
taken quickly to mitigate and, where possible, recover the ship’s loss of stability.

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Goal-Based Ship Construction Standards (GBS) for bulk carriers and oil tankers of 150m in
lenght and above

In the 1990s, the Maritime Safety Committee recognized that the prescriptive-based regulations
were unable to cope with the new ship design challenges and already took action to incorporate
the goal-based philosophy into the technical regulations of the SOLAS Convention. The IMO has
taken a new perspective – one that is goal and performance-oriented, in lieu of the traditional
prescriptive-based approach.

The basic principles of IMO goal-based standards/regulations are:

Broad, over-arching safety, environmental and/or security standards that ships are required to
meet during their lifecycle.

The required level to be achieved by the requirements applied by class societies and other
recognized organizations, Administrations and IMO.

Clear, demonstrable, verifiable, long standing, implementable and achievable, irrespective of

ship design and technology.

Specific enough in order not to be open to differing interpretations.

Goal-based ship construction standards (GBS) are required for oil tankers of 150 m in length
and above and to bulk carriers of 150 m in length and above, constructed with single deck, top-
side tanks and hopper side tanks in cargo spaces, excluding ore carriers and combination
carriers. It is required that that such ships are designed and constructed for a specified design
life to be safe and environmentally friendly, when properly operated and maintained under the
specified operating and environmental conditions, in intact and specified damage conditions,
throughout their life.

Frequently asked questions

Can the we use alternative materials within ship structures, what regulations apply?

Does the IMO type-approval for ship systems and equipment ?

I would like to request a technical opinion from IMO or have a request of interpretation for a
regulation.

How to order IMO publications including the international Code on intact Stability, 2008?
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Can the we use alternative materials within ship structures, what regulations apply?

SOLAS does not explicitly prohibit the use of alternative materials for ships' hulls, systems or
equipment but any unconventional material used needs to meet the requirements of SOLAS and
that of the flag State which include, among many others, watertight integrity, fire safety
standards, …. For some systems and equipment the use of steel is required, such as the use of
steel, bronze or other approved ductile material for shell fittings and valves or steel only for
pipes with respect to openings in the shell plating below the bulkhead deck of passenger ships
and the freeboard deck of cargo ships. "A" class divisions on ships shall be constructed of steel
or other equivalent material.

Does the IMO type-approval for ship systems and equipment ?

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) does not test or approve products for marine use
as this is the responsibility of the national maritime Administration (i.e. the Government of the
State whose flag the ship is entitled to fly). For specific systems tests may be carried out in test
laboratories which have been recognized by the national maritime Administrations. The
approval itself is generally issued by the Administration, on the basis of such laboratory test. In
this regard, the expression "IMO approved" is used to mean "approved in accordance with the
IMO Convention or other instruments concerned". If you require further information on type
approval or testing of equipment or authority to its onboard use you may contact the flag
Administration concerned or your national maritime Administration and seek their advice as
appropriate.