seatec - Finnish marine technology review 1/2008 | Page 23

SAFETY AND RELIABILITY RESEARCH AT VTT V TT Technical Research Centre of Finland is an impartial expert organiza- tion that carries out technical and technoeconomic research. The turnover is M€ 220 and the personnel totals 2,780. Main goal of our maritime technology research is to ensure high performance ships, reliable operation, and safe sea traffic. MARITIME OPERATIONS AND THE ENVIRONMENT “Prevention is foremost” describes well our strategy to improve maritime safety and protection of the environment. One of our main research focuses is risk assessment (FSA) applied to maritime operations, telematics, VTS, port & fairway design, environmental engineering, inland and winter navigation. staff competence evaluations, and usabili- NEW MONITORING TECHNOLOGIES We also actively develop Life Cycle ty evaluations. Assessments are conducted FOR SHIP OWNERS AND SYSTEM Assessment (LCA) tools for evaluation of by interdisciplinary teams with behavioral SUPPLIERS ship concepts in early design phase from science and maritime expertise. With on-line monitoring information, ship environmental point of view. owners and operators can verify that the SIMULATION acceptable limits for hull structural stress- SAFETY CULTURE AND HUMAN A prerequisite for realistic ship simulation es or vibrations are not exceeded. For its RELIABILITY in critical environmental conditions are part, the monitoring of machinery and pro- Safety cannot be compromised in the cruis- carefully designed mathematical models pulsion unit loadings gives information for ing business. Although the cruiser person- and high quality input data. Because VTT preventive maintenance. Advanced mon- nel have a variety of duties, such as enter- develops its own simulators and ship mod- itoring of loads onboard ships will si