Performance-based design for fire safety onboard passenger ships

This paper presents and makes use of coupled computer-simulated models employed to assess the performance of novel ship design regarding fire safety. Fire and smoke development prediction models and passenger evacuation models comprise the core of the tools used in the assessment suite. The final outcome of the design performance assessment is quantified in form of casualties, causal factor, location, time and severity of the casualty. This approach is utilized in this paper to assess the performance of a design that violates the prescriptive regulations of SOLAS, where the consequences are compared to those of a design complying with rules in order to analyse the effects of modifications. The fire scenario considered here is located in the accommodation spaces and violates the rules by exceeding the prescribed dimensions. The final outcomes of the new design fire safety assessment in form of casualties (cause, location and time) are analysed and discussed to reveal the advantages and drawbacks of the alterations made to the conventional design complying with the rules. Finally, recommendations on possible improvements regarding the new extended design are made and discussed.