Russian

RUSLAN system

Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RS), in cooperation with the Krylov Central Research Institute, has developed RUSLAN system intended for carrying out integrated calculations for sea-going transport ships. The calculations are made by finite element method with beam and plate elements. RUSLAN system is based on the Integrated System of Strength Analysis.

This information system permits its capabilities to be enhanced by using additional software.

RUSLAN system is based on the normative document "Strength Standards for Sea-Going Ships". RS has gained 40 years experience of applying the Strength Standards.

The system makes possible:

  • modeling of ship loading conditions, modes of operation at sea, technical condition of hull having wear, hull material;
  • determination and analysis of strained condition of the hull and its separate members;
  • assessment of hull strength by the criteria of ultimate strength, fatigue strength and duckling strength.

RUSLAN system enables the hull girder strength to be verified under the action of extreme loads from sea, taking account of dynamic loading and loads from the cargo carried. Local strength of separate hull structures and members is verified under the action of loads with regard to their repeatability during the ship service.

The system realizes:

  • automatic generation of cargo hold finite element models at given scantlings of members and topologic dimensions;
  • simplified input of initial data based on the catalogues of materials, plates, profiles, rates of wear, types of anticorrosive coatings;
  • visualization of input initial data on the hull;
  • visualization of the calculation results representing hull member stressed areas, the degree of their danger to the hull;
  • records of calculation results obtained.

The version of the system has been developed for bulk carriers, oil tankers, ships of restricted areas of navigation and river-sea navigation are under development.

RUSLAN system has the advantage that it can be used at the design stage, for assessment of hull technical condition, during repair, for reclassification, change of ship class and procedure of hull renovation.



Benefits of RUSLAN system

During the ship design:

  • improvement of hull safety by redistribution of material throughout the hull girder based on the analysis of hull member strength as well as selection of optimum arrangement of structures;
  • design of hulls and hull structures, for which the Rules and other normative documents are of limited use.

During the ship service:

  • precise assessment of hull member technical condition;
  • minimization of the scope of repair;
  • establishing permissible ship operation modes according to the areas and seasons of navigation and loading condition, kind of cargo carried depending on the current hull condition.

Information on ships and the results of calculations will be stored in the database, which will afford:

  • shortening the completion terms of design and agreement with RS;
  • planning the scope of hull survey and minimization thereof;
  • prediction of hull technical condition for the stated period of time;
  • determination of permissible period of hull service up to next repair;
  • simplifying the records, storage, analysis, updating data on ship hull as well as their accessibility via computer network.

Implementation of RUSLAN system in practice ensures:

  • improvement of hull safety thanks to due account of structural features, extensive strength analysis and reasoned decisions;
  • short-term solution (up to 3 weeks) of the problems arising during design process and ship service using the database on the types, series of ships, a single ship, created by program system;
  • improvement of work quality due to new technologies.