Double Hull Tankers
Double Hull Tankers
Double Hull Tankers
Furthermore, a double-hulled
tanker does not need
longitudinal bulkheads for
longitudinal strength, as the
inner hull already provides this.
Eliminating longitudinal
bulkheads would result in much
wider tanks, significantly
increasing the free surface effect
. However, this problem is easily
External environment
3.1.7.1 To cover worldwide trading operations and also to
deal with the uncertainty in the future trading pattern of
the ship and the corresponding wave conditions that will
be encountered, a severe wave environment is used for
the design assessment. The rule requirements are based
on a ship trading in the North Atlantic wave environment
for its entire design life.
The effects of wind and current on the structure are
considered to be negligible and hence are not explicitly
included.
The Rules do not include the effects of ice.
The Rules assume that the structural assessment of hull
strength members is valid for the following design
temperatures:
Maintenance
Failure to maintain the integrity of protective
coatings and cathodic protection in ballast tanks in
particular has led to leakage, pollution and
sometimes fire.
CARGO TANK Close up access can also be difficult if
adequate staging is not provided, as most cherry
pickers will not pass through cargo tank access
openings and the alternative of partial flooding of
the tank together with use of a raft is often less than
satisfactory.
Operations
Double hull tankers have two distinct operational
disadvantages in terms of stability over single hull
tankers.
First, for a given depth of ship, adding a double
bottom raises the ships centre of gravity and
thereby reduces the ships reserves of stability.
Second, free surface effects in cargo and ballast
tanks during cargo operations may cause double
hull tankers to lose stability and suffer an angle of
loll, particularly if the design does not incorporate
a longitudinal centre line bulkhead subdividing
the cargo space.
Construction
The confined spaces of double hull ballast tanks,
whether sides or bottom, are far more
restrictive to work in than the comparatively
spacious ballast tanks of the single hull tanker
The double sides and double bottom form
natural three-dimensional rigid building blocks,
less susceptible to deformation than the
predominantly two-dimensional components of
the single hull ship.
Salvage
If a double hull tanker should run aground and
rupture the outside shell, the available damage
statistics suggest that the inner hull will, in most
cases, not be breached
Damage to an 'L' shaped double bottom ballast
tank on the other hand would cause flooding on
one side resulting in a considerable list should
the ship not come to rest on supporting ground,
but remain free-floating.
Design
Double hull tankers operate with global stress
levels some 30% higher than those with single
hulls because of the uniform distribution of cargo
and ballast over the length of the ship. I
The consequence is most likely to be small
fatigue fractures in early years of service,
especially in larger double hull tankers, unless
great care is exercised in the design detail and
supervision of workmanship during construction.
Stability
The free surface effect is the degradation in transverse
stability which occurs when there are slack surfaces
When combined with the effect of the double bottom
ballast tanks that effectively raise the centre of gravity
of the cargo, there is a consequential large reduction in
intact stability
much more care needs to be taken in distributing the
cargo on board a double hull than single hull tanker
task is helped by the use of on board computers
Load on top
The discharges from seawater washing
were still considered a problem and during
the 1960s the load on top approach began
to be adopted. The mixture of cleaning
water and residue was pumped into a slop
tank and allowed to separate into oil and
water during the journey. The water
portion was then discharged, leaving only
crude oil in the slop tank. This was
pumped into the main tanks and the new
cargo loaded on top of it, recovering as
much as 800 tons of oil which was
formerly discarded.