Searching for critical conditions during lifeboat launching – simulations

The article describes numerical simulations of the process of lifeboat launching at the ship’s side. The research aimed at finding the values of ship motion parameters which appear to be most dangerous for people in the lowered lifeboat due to the generated accelerations. The simplified model of ship hull motion adopted at this research stage bases on a superposition of harmonic motions with given amplitudes and periods in six degrees of freedom. The range of the amplitude of motion for each degree of freedom corresponds approximately to that of possible motion of the PANAMAX type ship on the Baltic sea. In total, 120 960 cases of ship hull motion were examined.