Current Practices and Recent Advances in Condition Assessment of Aged Ships

Ship structures are likely to be subject to age-related deterioration such as corrosion wastage, cracking or mechanical damage. It has reportedly been recognised that such age-related deterioration is almost always involved in the catastrophic failures of ship structures including total losses. While such accidents typically cause concern to the public, maintenance and repair of aged structures is quite costly and complex. It is thus of great importance to develop advanced technologies allowing for proper management and control of such age-related deterioration. This paper summarises the report of the ISSC 2006 Committee V.6 presenting current practices, recent advances and future trends on condition assessment of aged ships. This includes assessment of the structural condition in view of the serviceability and safety, methods for repair, quantification of strength of deteriorated and repaired ships (as well as criteria for acceptable damage), with due account of the uncertainties involved. Consideration is also given to cost–benefit and risk-based decision procedures for remedial actions.