Dropsim gives new insight into operational limits of freefall lifeboats


Set-up for drop tests in the Depressurised Wave Basin With the successful


validation of the software tool Dropsim a significant step forward has been made in determining the operational boundaries related to sailaway of freefall lifeboats.


Ingo Drummen, Jule Scharnke & Frans Quadvlieg i.drummen@marin.nl


F


or the oil industry, the safety of personnel is an overriding concern. If helicopters cannot be used to


evacuate people, freefall lifeboats will generally be the main (and only) alternative for emergency evacuation. A crucial challenge is to demonstrate and document that such an evacuation can be conducted safely, with no significant harm to the personnel on board the lifeboat.


In the past four years MARIN has worked on a series of freefall lifeboat projects on behalf of the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association (NOROG), Statoil and lifeboat manufacturers. The latter, amongst others, includes the Dutch lifeboat builder Verhoef, which is also interviewed in this issue.


The main aim of the projects carried out together with NOROG and Statoil was to


develop a transparent and consistent method to quantify the operability limits of lifeboats. To achieve this goal the software tool Dropsim was developed, which predicts the drop and sailaway behaviour of freefall lifeboats. The validation of Dropsim was successfully concluded at the end of September 2014. MARIN’s work for the lifeboat manufacturers is to ensure that newly built lifeboats comply with the new standard of DNV - the DNV-OS-E406 - through model tests and full-scale trials.


Report highlights the work carried out in the past few years, focusing on the devel- opment of Dropsim, the dedicated lifeboat model tests and the full-scale trials.


Dropsim Model tests are a suitable means to quantify limiting wave conditions for safely launching a freefall lifeboat. A


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