CRUISE SHIPS GROW
BIGGER AND SAFER?
I
NTRODUCTION. To protect lives on
board a ship is the obligation of the
ship designer, the architects and the contractors but not least of the ship owner. A
ship is a closed society when the ship is at
the open sea. There is no way to a quick escape in case of an accident, so there must
be enough time to bring the passengers to
a safe place. The rescue teams on board
must be able to thrust that all installations
on board are according to existing regulations. All materials have to pass smoke
and toxic gas tests or have to be completely non-combustible. The safety on board is
Gypsum and plastic mouldings under fire, duration 1 min versus 5-10 seconds A variety
of decorative gypsum and special cement based materials and boards might save lives and
property during a sudden fire.
guided by the international SOLAS (Safety
of Life at Sea) agreement.
organic materials like metal, stone, glass,
ods. This is one of the means by which the
passenger safety can be increased.
SURSHIP. An ongoing (2006–2009)
ceramic and cementitious materials will
European Research cooperation project on
absorb heat during a fire. Cementitious
Maritime Safety, Surship(Survivability for
materials are gypsum, cement or silicate
ships) is aiming to improve safety on board.
based with up to 50% chemically bound
All passengers should be able to stay on
water. The fire will release water vapour,
board while the crew is taking control of
which cools and dilutes burning gases,
the dangerous situation. A sub-project,
while keeping the surface at around 100
Surship – Fire, Survivability for ships in
centigrade. This will increase the time to
case of fire is coordinated by VTT and fi-
escape and give the fire fighters the few
nanced by the government, VTT and 10
extra minutes they need to take control
Finnish companies.
over the fire. The vaporized water will al-
The task is to collect and combine
More information: www.renotech.fi
so neutralise toxic burning gases.
available information on key factors of fire
CONCLUSIONS. When designing the
behaviour of materials and products used
ship interior it is important to be aware of
on board in a form useful for fire safety
material properties and behaviour of ma-
engineering analysis.
terials during fire. Never place “plastic”
MATERIALS. The understanding of
based materials, moulding or decorations
what happens with different materials
up in the ceiling and never specify paints
during a fire is essential when planning
and coatings with unknown burning char-
and designing a ship and its interior in-
acteristics for upper parts of walls and the
stallations. Steel softens, aluminium melts,
ceiling. Also artwork should at least have
all organic matter will burn or decompose
low flame spread and a minimum content
during a fire. Reduced oxygen in the air
of organic material. A specifying architect
can drastically change burning gas com-
should take his responsibility not to specify
position into more toxic components fol-
or suggest materials, which have not been
lowed by intoxication and loss of life. In-
tested according to the newest IMO meth-
28
seatec 2008
Renotech solutions for a fire safe Viking
style restaurant interior. All wooden like
beams, walls and ceiling panels are made
from Renotech GRG, glass fibre reinforced
gypsum. Stonemix high strength mortar
gives a textured stone-like surface to the
walls. RenoImage stones are glued with
Renofix non-combustible glue. The gypsum
surface has been tinted with Renopur colour
system. All products are IMO classified.