Design criteria for weather routed transport

The paper describes the advanced design process for weather routed heavy cargo transports which is now possible using the Safetrans PC software tooi. The software tooi, devised as a risk based, probabilistic response method for the calculation of the design loads for ocean transports and tows has been subjected to a thorough calibration and validation. To qualify as an engineering method, a load factor study was carried out to establish partial safety factors as function of probability of failure. The target level of safety (i.e. upper level of acceptable probability of failure) depends on the type of transport and has been identified in a consequence class evaluation. This allows the user to select the appropriate safety factors for design. An engineering guideline has been developed to instruct the engineer as to selection of targets and proper use of the method. The paper reveals the various specific capabilities of Safetrans and presents a sample case of results, illustrating the effect of weather routing.