Winterization Guidelines for Vessels Operating in Arctic Waters

• Main Authors: Robert Conachey, Egil Legl, Ge Wang, Cliff Baker
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.642.1918; http://www.eagle.org/eagleExternalPortalWEB/ShowProperty/BEA Repository/References/Technical Papers/2007/WinterizationGuidelines/

Marine transportation from the Arctic will pose new challenges to the design and operation of vessels. Many technology innovations are being studied and implemented to respond to these challenges, and extensive research and development is needed for managing risk associated with operating oil and gas carriers in the Arctic. Year-round carriage by sea will place extreme challenges on the ships and their crews. This paper discusses those ship design and operation challenges for this trade. There are two related perspectives of this paper: • Winterization of vessels operating in the arctic environment • Implications for design, winterization, and operations due to the needs of humans operating under arctic conditions. From the first perspective, traditional consideration is given to winterization issues such as: de-icing, ice effects mitigation (such as sea chest designs), interaction between ice breakers and their escorted ships, piping arrangements, fire fighting arrangements and main/auxiliary machinery. The second considers the implications on ship design, winterization, and operation to meet the requirements and needs of the crew. These include concerns related to: environmental controls, cold weather clothing, crew support and habitability, human performance in cold weather, safety and medical issues, personnel characteristics, and machinery operation and maintenance. The paper presents and summarizes the ABS Guide for Vessels Operating in Low Temperature Environments providing standards for the winterization and human support and operation of vessels operating in arctic conditions.