New Launching Concept for Free-Fall Lifeboats and Validation by Model Experiments and Numerical Simulations

A new concept for launching free-fall lifeboats, proposed by Yokohama National University is described in this paper. It has been pointed out that, using the conventional single-skid free-fall system, the potential for dangerous lifeboat motions (in which the lifeboat moves backward or jerks on the surface after entering the water) increases with the fall height of the lifeboat. One of the principal causes of this undesirable motion is vertical rotation of the lifeboat during its restricted fall at the edge of the launching skid. Thus a new "double-skid"launching concept is proposed to effectively eliminate the rotation of the lifeboat at the skid end and to enable the lifeboat to move smoothly after entering the water. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed method, a series of model experiments and numerical simulations is carried out in which two lifeboat models with overall lengths of 1 meter and 6 meters are used. The effects of design parameters such as skid angle and skid height are investigated, and an example of the implementation of this new system at the stern of a large merchant ship is illustrated.