Double Hull Tankers – Are they the answer?

Summary
Double Hulled vessels are regarded by some as the answer to all
the problems of transportation of oil at sea without pollution. Whilst
it is acknowledged that double hulled vessels have some
advantage over single hulled vessels, indeed they will provide
added security in low impact collisions and groundings, both
designs will be inadequate if poorly maintained and operated.

Double Hulled tankers because of their complex design and

structure are potentially more susceptible to problems of poor
maintenance and operation.

Double Hulled tankers may only be the answer if combined with;

high quality operation, maintenance, classification surveys, and
proper policing by flag state and port state.

© OCIMF 2003

OCIMF would like to thank Shell Shipping Technology for the

technical assistance given by them for this information paper.

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 withdrawal of certificates, loss of business - and it is
Introduction essential that their monitoring activity is reinforced as
it represents the best deterrent to lack of
Are double hulls the answer? The shift to double hull maintenance.
designs will reduce the likelihood of oil spillage but
only if they are: Undetected corrosion is a major cause of some of the
• maintained to a higher standard than is spectacular structural failures we have seen in the last
apparent in some ships today, few years (Figure 1). In particular, failure to maintain
• operated by personnel who are well trained the integrity of protective coatings and cathodic
and committed to their jobs; and protection in ballast tanks has led to leakage, pollution
• designed and built to high standards. and sometimes fire. Maintenance of the ballast tanks
of double hull tankers is just as essential, perhaps
even more so since there is two to three times the
They can help reduce the pollution from the many surface area of structure compared with a single hull
minor grounding and collision incidents which usually tanker. If coating failure of ballast tank structures
occur within port limits when the ship is under arises before the end of the projected operational life,
pilotage. there are significant difficulties associated with
Double hull tankers can still be prone to catastrophic reinstating an effective coating system.
structural failures, if not maintained and operated to
high standards. The cellular nature of ballast spaces significantly
increases the cost and difficulty of removing original
It should also be recognised that, when Builders are failed coating, surface preparation and recoating. The
increasingly driven to optimise designs to remain alternative is to continue operating with the additional
competitive it is left to Owner/Operators to insist on disruption imposed by the annual inspection of all
maintaining, or sometimes enhancing, previous ballast spaces which will be required by Class in
standards and designs. In particular there is a need cases where coating condition is defined as “poor”.
for higher standards in building specifications to However, once significant coating failure is
address the critical importance of fatigue detailing, experienced the rate of corrosion on exposed areas
surface preparation, ballast tank coatings and will accelerate to the point where extensive
enhanced means of access for ease of inspection in replacement of steelwork will soon be required.
ballast and cargo tanks. There are numerous Therefore, coating life could in fact become the
guidelines for good practice however none are deciding factor in determining the economic trading
enforceable and are dependent upon the life of double hull designs.
owner/operator paying. That is if the shipyard allow as
they are very often not compatible with existing The structure in the double hull spaces is far more
shipyard production practices. accessible than the ballast tanks of a single hull ship.
Usually they will be between 2 and 3.5m wide (or
It is worthy of note that while currently there are no high), allowing easy close-up inspection provided the
international mandatory standards for safety of side tanks are fitted with side stringers to serve as
vessels with regard to, strength, fatigue life, coatings inspection platforms at reasonable intervals. There
and corrosion limits. There is however a proposal in should therefore be no excuse for neglecting the
IMO by Bahamas and Greece to introduce a minimum inspection and maintenance of this structure and its
mandatory standard. coatings. International Safety Guide for Oil Tankers
and Terminals (ISGOTT) guidelines do, however
recommend that ballast tanks are not entered while
the ship is loaded with cargo, but that weekly
1. Maintenance sampling of the atmosphere for hydrocarbon gas is
undertaken during loaded voyages. Inspection inside
ballast tanks is greatly facilitated by the use of light
Proper maintenance is the responsibility of the ship
coloured coatings. Not only does this make the
owner and manager. It is not the responsibility of the
detection of any cargo leakage much easier, it also
classification society, the flag State, the underwriter or
makes the operation much safer (Figure 2).
the charterer. These latter bodies can exert some
influence on the maintenance of the ship but they will
never be in a position to see or learn as much about
the condition of the ship as the manager.
Nevertheless, the influence which these organisations
wield has a heavy commercial impact - detention,
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 the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and
OCIMF. Guidelines for Inspection and
Maintenance of Double Hull Tanker Structures

Fig 1.
Failure due to undetected corrosion
2. Operational Issues
Operational safety on double hull tankers was
recognised at IMO as requiring special consideration
and industry representatives were asked to draw up a
set of guidelines. These are now included in the latest
edition of the International Safety Guide for Oil
Tankers and Terminals (ISGOTT) In addition to
highlighting the potential problems of stability and
ventilation referred to above, the guide gives useful
advice on:

• routine monitoring of empty ballast tanks for

hydrocarbon gases;
• action to be taken in the event of cargo
leakage;
• procedures to be followed if a ballast tank
must be inerted as a result of cargo leakage
into the tank; and
• advice on gas freeing, cleaning and entry
Fig 2. after inerting.
Light coating improve visibility and safety during
structural inspections The obvious hazard, which all operators of double hull
tankers will need to guard against, is that of cargo
leakage into the ballast spaces. The ISGOTT
document is a useful guide to handling this situation.
Leakage arises from small fractures in bulkhead
plating between cargo and ballast tanks which may be
caused by unpredicted local stress concentration,
fatigue, construction defect or, eventually, corrosion
through failure of the protective coating system. The
structural design of double hull tankers renders them
more susceptible to minor failures of this type than the
single hull designs. Apart from taking even more care
at the design and construction phases, regular
inspection of the structure to detect incipient failures
will be a necessary operational routine.

Mud build up in the ballast space should be expected

to be even more of a problem than with single hull
Inspection inside cargo tanks is much more difficult as tankers. Experience with gas ships indicated that
it requires a lengthy process of washing, gas freeing when ballast is taken on in estuarial waters, the
and ventilation before they are safe to enter. Some cellular nature of the tanks causes a much higher
double hull tankers have suffered rapid corrosion retention of mud that is the case in the wider ballast
inside the cargo tanks, which are often not coated. tanks of a single hull ship. Some owners have fitted
OCIMF has published a paper on this problem ballast tank washing systems to combat this effect.
which appears to be far more serious than on
single hull tankers. (Factors Influencing Piping systems in double hull tankers will be fully
Accelerated Corrosion of Cargo Oil Tanks) segregated, with cargo pipes running almost
exclusively through cargo tanks and ballast pipes
Further guidance on the inspection and maintenance through ballast tanks. This overcomes the problem
of double hull tankers is given in a book published which exists today of ballast pipes running through
jointly by the Tanker Structures Co-Operative Forum, cargo tanks and becoming a potential source of
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pollution by cargo leaking into the pipes and through will usually be inadequate for the expected lifetime of
into the clean ballast. It does mean, however, that the ship, again to keep the build cost down and
replacement of the ballast pipes will be more difficult minimise the impact on production. The confined
since they will be threaded through access holes in spaces of the double hull ballast tanks, whether sides
the floors of the double bottom tanks, as they are in or bottom, are far more unpleasant to work in than the
bulk carriers and other dry cargo ships with double comparatively spacious ballast tanks of the single hull
bottoms. Removal of old pipes will require the cutting tanker and good ventilation through the design of
of large openings in the bottom shell plating or inner openings is very important. Maintainability also needs
bottom. to be designed into the vessel and here is an area
where currently there are no enforceable standards,
There is no doubt that significant advantages in cargo anything included at present is generally at the
operations will accrue from the change to double request and expense of, diligent managers and
hulls. This will especially benefit product carriers, operators, as it adds complication to production for
which carry high value cargo, and where even better the shipyard.
outturns can be expected. The smoother internal tank
surfaces and pump suctions recessed into wells in the Some features of the double hull design make life
double bottom will make cargo discharge and tank easier for the builder. The double sides and double
washing much easier and lead to reduced cargo bottom form natural three-dimensional rigid building
residue in the tanks. blocks, less susceptible to deformation than the
predominantly two-dimensional components of the
single hull ship.
3. Construction Issues
However, the number of cruciform joints where
Modern shipyards adopt 'factory' techniques to primary structural members terminate on double skin
improve productivity and thus reduce ship structure is significantly increased. Many of these are
construction times. Whereas a VLCC might have located in critical areas (defined as areas where high
taken two years to build in the early 1970s, double stress levels combined with potential stress
hull VLCCs are now being built, from first steel cutting concentration features may lead to premature failure
to delivery, in about eight or nine months. This puts a of primary structure). It is vital that in these locations,
great deal of emphasis on doing the job correctly first the importance of enhanced standards of fit up,
time - corrective work or request by owners to follow alignment and inspection, which vary greatly from
“Industry Best Practices and Guidelines” causes delay yard to yard, are recognised and implemented by the
and disrupts the shipyard's production programme. Designers, Builders and Class. Another area where
This in turn puts pressure on quality and an owner's there is guidance available which is generally at odds
supervision team, needs to be alert to several critical with shipyard production practice.
aspects of the construction of double hull tankers.

Probably the most significant of these is the protection

4. Salvage of a double
of the ballast tanks. The ballast tanks, which carry sea hulled tanker
water as ballast when the tanker is on its return
(empty) voyage are the areas most prone to corrosion
because of the extremely corrosive nature of salt If a double hull ship should run aground and rupture
water. This aspect attains far greater significance in a the outside shell, the available damage statistics
double hull tanker because of the increased surface suggest that the inner hull will, in most cases, not be
area of the structure inside the ballast tanks. Because breached and no oil will be spilt. However, on smaller
these tanks are much longer and narrower than those tankers the damaged space might easily be a 'U'
in single hull tankers, their surface area is two to three shaped tank, allowing free flooding right across the
times that of the ballast tanks in a single hull ship. double bottom and up to the outside water level each
side of the cargo tank. Thus a considerable weight of
Although protective coatings are an obligatory flood water would be admitted, making the ship sit
requirement of the major classification societies, it is more firmly on the bottom and more difficult to re-float.
up to the owner to choose the type and number of A single hull tanker, by contrast, would spill a small
coats, ensure that they are properly applied and amount of cargo which would lighten the ship and
decide whether to fit anodes as well. Shipyards will make it easier to re-float (Figure 3). Damage to an 'L'
argue that their standard preparation procedure is shaped double bottom tank on the other hand, would
adequate even though it fails to meet the standards cause flooding on one side resulting in considerable
recommended by experts and paint manufacturers. list should the ship not come to rest on the rock but
The standard coating specification from the builder remain free-floating. This would need to be corrected
by the filling of an opposite tank. If the ship remained
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aground with damage to an 'L' shaped tank, then the but also on an effective programme of inspection,
consequent heel when the ship floated free would maintenance and repair being conducted by the
need to be considered in the salvage plan. owner or his manager. However well designed and
built a tanker may be, it will not provide trouble-free
In the Prestige incident one side was flooded and the service unless it is well operated. The tanker designs
ballast tanks on the opposite side were filled to bring produced by today’s shipbuilders although approved
the ship upright, this caused the stresses to exceed by all the major classification societies, are based on
the design limits by some 68%. the assumption that the owner will undertake all
necessary repairs to the fabric during its lifetime.
The relative merits of single and double hull designs There is no such thing as a maintenance-free tanker.
depend on weather conditions at the time and on the The design and construction process therefore,
availability of salvors. It might in some circumstances although important, is not the sole factor in the long
be advantageous to have the ship sitting more firmly term integrity of the structure.
aground until salvage equipment arrives.
The history of ship structural design is one of
Salvors have indicated that they would prefer to evolution rather than revolution. Designers learn from
salvage a ship with a double bottom as it gives them past experience and each new ship tends to be a
the option of using air pressure to expel the flood development of a previous successful design.
water. This is certainly true of dry cargo ships, which Whenever this course has been abandoned - as in the
do not have to meet the raking damage criterion and rapid growth in size of tankers in the 1960s and the
have greater subdivision in their double bottom tanks. large open hold container ship designs of the 1970s -
Nor do they have interconnected side and bottom structural problems have materialised sooner or later
tanks. The use of air pressure then becomes a due to the lack of relevant service experience. A shift
feasible salvage technique. Almost certainly it will take from single hull design to double hull design
longer to re-float a damaged double hull tanker than a represents a similar departure from established
damaged single hull tanker, during which time the successful designs. Despite the advent of ever more
weather conditions could be critical. powerful computers and increasingly sophisticated
structural analysis programs, structural design
remains a largely empirical process and it is still
Fig 3. impossible to produce a successful design exclusively
Effect of Bottom Damage from first principles. This is because of the extremely
complex interaction of the many variables which affect
the stresses in the structure:

• Structural design – plate thicknesses, local

stress concentrations, stiffness and proper
transmission of loads;
• construction quality - for instance alignment,
local imperfections, the quality of steel and
welding;
• distribution of the cargo weight in the ship;
• static and dynamic forces of the sea and
waves resulting from heaving, pitching, rolling
and possibly slamming;
• vibration from machinery;
• random corrosion; and
• the complex internal distribution of stresses
between primary, secondary and tertiary
structures.

5. Design Issues Clearly, the 'design' or calculated stress levels in any

element of the structure should have a safety factor
based on previous successful experience. It is
Structural Design impossible to calculate accurately the true stress
levels in service throughout the tanker's structure
entirely from first principles. However, safety factors
The structural integrity of oil tanker hulls relies not for large double hull structures are not yet available
only on good quality of initial design and construction for the simple reason that there is little service
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experience. Although there is already some amount on extra steel thicknesses and suffers the
successful service experience from gas ships and attendant increase in design draught, or builds in
smaller double hulled product carriers, it will be extra ballast tanks to reduce bending moments.
several years before the structural design of double Commercial pressures mean that few, if any, owners
hulled VLCCs can be proved. In the meantime, are willing to suffer these financial penalties. These
generous safety factors need to be incorporated into higher stresses will increase the risk of buckling
the design. failure - especially after several years in service and
the consequent reduction in plate thickness from
The utilisation of higher tensile (HT) steel in double corrosion. They will also increase the likelihood of the
hull designs, driven by builders to minimise steel development of small fatigue cracks.
weight and retain competitive edge in the world
markets, is again an important factor. When used Many shipyards worldwide designed double hull
extensively for primary and secondary structure, tankers for the first time based on their own direct
particularly within the ballast tank spaces, the calculations and guided by the experience of the
resulting increases in deflections and stress levels classification society, which, in the case of some of
will impact negatively on their fatigue lives and also the smaller societies, may also be limited. This could
upon the effective lifetime of coating systems. Thus put the design of double hull VLCCs, for example,
the incorporation of extensive amounts of HT steel will closer to 'revolution' than 'evolution' in the absence of
potentially have more impact on the operational service and operational experience and safety factors.
performance of a double hull design compared with The consequence is most likely to be small fatigue
single skin. Therefore, it falls upon the fractures in the early years of service, especially in
Owner/Operator to try and limit the extent of HT steel larger double hull tankers, unless great care is
incorporated in new builds, usually at extra cost to exercised in the design detail and workmanship
themselves. during construction. Some of the major classification
societies have put much effort into studying these
The difficulty of accurate stress prediction is problems and are confident that they can achieve a
compounded by the higher hull girder bending successful structural design first time.
moments of double hull tankers (Table 1). These arise
because of the uniform distribution of cargo and Some of the first generation of double hull tankers
ballast over the length of the ship, whereas in a single suffer from defects in poor design details, such as
hull tanker the ballast tanks can be positioned to poor alignment of the cruciform joints, poor support of
minimise longitudinal bending and shear stresses, the lower knuckle between cargo tank and ballast tank
resulting in values well below the classification society and lack of understanding of the need for good weld
maximum (Figure 4). profiling in areas of higher stress. None of these
issues was relevant on single hull tankers. There is
Table 1 still a learning process as these problems and others
are detected and solved. In the meantime all
operators of double hull tankers have to be on their
guard to detect fatigue cracks as quickly as possible
to prevent crude oil leaking into ballast tanks or the
contamination of valuable product cargoes with ballast
water. Perhaps the greatest concern is that of an
accumulation of hydrocarbon gas inside an empty
ballast tank.

Double hull tankers will operate with global stress

levels some 30% higher than those with single hulls -
close to the maxima acceptable to classification
societies - unless an owner spends a substantial

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 Fig 4. longitudinal strength and no further longitudinal
bulkheads are necessary for structural purposes.
Shipyards therefore built double hull tankers with no
longitudinal subdivision inside the cargo tank section,
so that a single tank extends across the ship from
double side to double side (Figure 5). Recent changes
to the MARPOL convention have prevented this
practice on new ships, but not before many had been
built. It is possible to produce designs of this nature
for tankers up to about 150 000 tonnes dwt. Inclusion
of a further longitudinal bulkhead obviously increases
the weight of steel, making the design more
expensive, less marketable and less attractive to a
prospective owner.
Fig 5.

Fig 6.

Intact Stability

The transverse stability - the ability of a ship to remain

upright and a measure of its resistance either to take
on a list or to capsize completely - of single hull
tankers has never really been a problem. Meeting
damage stability criteria in the event of damage to the
outside shell plating can sometimes be difficult for
smaller tankers with a relatively narrow beam, but
there are generally no constraints on loading and de-
ballasting operations of single hull tankers imposed by
lack of stability. This situation has changed with the
introduction of double hull tankers.

Single hull tankers need longitudinal bulkheads which

run throughout the length of the cargo tanks to The result of having these very wide cargo tanks is a
provide longitudinal strength. The transverse spacing substantially increased free surface effect.
of these bulkheads can be chosen to give tank sizes The free surface effect is the degradation in
of approximately equal capacity and bottom support transverse stability which occurs when there are slack
structure of manageable proportions. The inner hull of surfaces - the liquid surface in any tank which is not
double hull tankers already provides sufficient filled so full that surface movement is effectively
restricted by the deck structure. Combined with the
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double bottom, which raises the centre of gravity of This raises the question of the policing by Flag or Port
the cargo, there is a consequent large reduction in States of this particular regulation. It is notoriously
intact stability. This can occur almost instantaneously difficult to apply Regulation 25 effectively in practice.
during simultaneous cargo and ballast handing A Flag State may approve certain specific cargo
operations. In the case of a 40,000 tonne dwt product loading conditions in a trim and stability manual, or it
carrier it is equivalent to an almost instantaneous loss may even approve some form of stability envelope.
of over one metre in GM value - the metacentric But there is nothing in practice to prevent a ship from
height which is a direct measure of ship stability. This distributing cargo either in contravention of the
has already led to instances of these ships taking on a approved conditions or in a manner which has not
sudden list during cargo handling. The immediate been specifically approved. This had led to situations
solution is better training of the cargo officers and the where cargo has been declined by one ship but a
provision of high quality information on board, so that sister ship, operated by a different company has
positive stability is retained throughout cargo and accepted it. This is undoubtedly an area in which the
ballast handling operations. conscientious operator is penalised and where tighter
vigilance by flag and port States is required.
On-board computer programs which can be used to
plan the discharge by simulating the sequence of
operations and alerting the operator to any dangerous
condition which could arise are an additional valuable Ventilation and Access
aid.

Full scale trials carried out in a shipyard on

completion of a double hull tanker of about one million
Damaged Stability barrel capacity have shown that, unless carefully
designed, it can be impossible to blow air from the
The second aspect of stability concerns the need to deck down one side of a 'U' shaped ballast tank and
load tankers so that they will survive specified types of exhaust naturally from the other, despite the fact that
damage (The International Convention for the an apparently ample number of openings are
Protection of Pollution from Ships, MARPOL, provided. This is due to the cellular nature of the wing
Regulation 25). The smaller the ship the more difficult and double bottom tanks. Personnel entry Into these
a task this becomes. Checking a proposed seagoing spaces - which is necessary to check for corrosion,
condition against all the possible damage scenarios leakage and mud build-up - will be hazardous unless
can be a laborious process and one which all Chief proper consideration is given at the design stage to
Officers cannot easily undertake. Ship builders usually the provision of sufficient openings to permit good
have little understanding of the pressures surrounding ventilation. This is a feature which is usually not fully
this activity and can be persuaded only rarely to appreciated by shipyard designers who have no
provide sufficiently comprehensive guidance in a form operational experience.
which is easily understood. Fortunately the use of
computers is of assistance here. Most loading The importance of good access has been endorsed
instruments are already based on personal computers by the Report of the Donaldson Enquiry following the
and additional programs are now available for 'Braer' incident in 1993 and more recently by
checking intended loading patterns. These programs submissions to the IMO by the Bahamas Flag
can be integrated with the trim and stress calculator, Administration. Current surveys on VLCCs
giving a quick and easy solution to the problem. The demonstrate how difficult it is to obtain close-up
only difficult part can be the extraction of sufficient access to inspect the structure inside large tanks.
data from the builder to enable the software supplier Rafts, remotely controlled vehicles (both underwater
to cover all the owner's requirements. and above), 'mountaineering' and staging platforms
have all been tried with varying degrees of success.
Owing to the intact stability problems referred to These problems can be solved at the design stage by
above, compliance with damaged stability criteria is the provision of permanent walkways for access to
now not so easy and considerable care needs to be those parts which need to be closely inspected.
taken in distribution of the cargo. For example, there Structure inside double bottom tanks will be relatively
are instances where a cargo of warm product can be easy to inspect, but other tanks will have little or no
loaded in compliance with the regulations; but on structure inside from which to permit a close
cooling, the cargo surface is slightly lower down the inspection. The double side tanks, for instance, can
tank and, because of the deck camber, the free easily be made more 'inspection friendly' by the
surface effect has increased to a point where the addition of some fore and aft stringers - horizontal
stability is unsatisfactory. A conscientious officer will structural members running the length of the ballast
check for these small details but others might not. tank – at convenient heights which can serve as
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inspection platforms. Cargo tanks, which will be
relatively free from internal structure, will need some
provision for inspection of deckhead structure,
especially when heated cargoes are carried and
corrosion can be expected to be more rapid.

6. Conclusion

It should be recognised that the current poor

perception of the industry has not been acquired
simply because double hull tankers have not been
used extensively. The standards of design,
construction, maintenance and operation of double
hull tankers is every bit as important as those of their
single hull predecessors and the tanker industry
cannot afford to relax its vigilance in these areas. All
those who have a responsibility for monitoring these
standards - in particular the management of the
owning company - must be aware of the different
problems posed by double hulls and implement
appropriate inspection and check procedures to
counter them.

Double Hulled Tankers, Are they the

answer? – Not necessarily because

Poorly designed, constructed, maintained

and operated double hull tankers have as
much if not more potential for disaster.

Well maintained, diligently operated, high

quality tankers whatever the construction
are the answer.

Further information can be obtained from:

Oil Companies International Marine Forum
27 Queen Anne’s Gate
London SW1H 9BU
Tel: +44 (0)20 7654 1200
Fax: +44 (0)20 7654 1205
Email: [email protected]
www.ocimf.com

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