Ship’s Life Extension Program
Gain significant benefits such as an extended ship life and expanded operational capabilities
What is a Ship’s Life Extension Program?
A Ship’s Life Extension Program aims to assess the fatigue life of a ship, for both past and future planned operations.
It includes:
- the analysis of the ship characteristics, that must align with the required rules
- the analysis of the wave effects, considered by scaling the significant heights in various ship states identified through AIS information.
With an increasing level of investigation, the characteristics of each specific ship are reevaluated through precise seakeeping analyses, considering the impacts of wave routes and meteorological conditions.
What are the benefits of a Ship’s Life Extension Program?
The advantage for ship owners lies in an enhanced understanding and utilization of the ship's characteristics, resulting in significant benefits such as an extended ship life and expanded operational capabilities.
What we offer
RINA tools enable ship owners to estimate accumulated fatigue damage based on real service and metocean conditions. Historical voyage data retrieved from AIS data assesses ship positions, speed, heading, and loading conditions.
AIS positions are then used to collect data on metocean conditions, calculating tailored operational statistics and specific scatter diagrams applied to the Digital Twin of the ship created by RINA, leading to the fatigue stress suffered by the ship.
Expected fatigue residual life is evaluated, considering the areas where the ship will operate. These calculations can be performed without any device/IOT installed on board.
Fatigue suffered can be periodically recalculated based on the progressive operation of the ship. Ship owners can request RINA to generate different levels of Digital Twins for their units based on the required accuracy.
Why RINA
RINA can offer a tailored service to each Owner, and we can support the Owner in selecting the most appropriate analysis option.
Different levels of analyses may be adopted, characterized by an increased level of technical investigation into the ship’s structural model, load models, and fatigue assessment.
All analyses adhere to the RINA Rules, particularly for fatigue aspects.
At each analysis level, the fatigue life is calculated in accordance with RINA Rules Pt B, Ch 7, Sect 4, considering the expected navigation areas or site design conditions in the case of ship conversion to a floating fixed unit.
The decision-making process involves determining the best assignment of operational areas for the fleet based on the expected fatigue life generated, already accumulated fatigue, and fatigue balancing among the ships.
