The continuous increase in marine traffic and the construction of several offshore installations has led to a serious concern regarding the risks to offshore platforms from ship collisions. The main aim of this study was to carry out a probabilistic collision-risk analysis for offshore platforms exposed to powered collisions with passing vessels using an automatic identification system (AIS) database. The paper first describes the statistical distribution of the ship traffic under study and then considers how this information can be effectively used to estimate collision frequencies and impact energies for various categories of vessel, based on a simple probabilistic method. The effects of various collision mitigation measures, such as the use of enhanced collision alarming devices and the ability of platforms to rotate using thrusters, are considered in the frequency calculations. The risk method presented in this paper can be applied in the design and development phase of both new and existing platforms.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.