Application of the Probabilistic Approach to Naval Ships for the Damage Survivability Assessment: An Investigation Case

The assessment of a damaged ship has been a matter of investigation, discussion and renovation among the naval architects and in the scientific community during the latest decades, due to the strong harmonization process carried out at the IMO (International Maritime Organization). Since 2009 the probabilistic methodology is the unified approach in the merchant industry, both for passenger and cargo ships. In this paper the probabilistic approach is regarded as a hypothetical, interesting and a useful tool also in the warship context, especially when considering and defining the survivability characteristics of a ship in a preliminary design phase. In the present article the probabilistic approach proposed by the IMO is presented and briefly overviewed; moreover its possible transferability to the naval field is discussed in two steps: 1) the analysis in principle of the results of its application to a naval patrol vessel; 2) the analysis of its suitability to address the vulnerability characteristics of the ship in terms of survivability. In the end the guidelines for its possible transfer to naval field are described and proposed by their application to the above mentioned naval patrol vessel.