No shift or additional frequencies were observed. Due to the drift motions of the ship a wake can appear on the windward side. This was shown to not influence the wave amplitudes or wave smoothness. The situation when an evacuating equipment needs to be used is complex and consists of many processes. From the perspective of the wave climate the wave situation is similar on the windward side and leeward side for long incident waves. However, for shorter waves the situa-tion is significantly more favourable on the leeward side. For shorter waves it can also be concluded that the situation is more favourable fore and aft on the wind-ward side compared to amidships. Further, three evacuation systems behaviour was ex-perimentally investigated when the ship was free to drift transversally. A number of parameters and wave condi-tions and their effects on the systems behaviour have been studied. The risk of evacuation by the lifeboat and the chute systems is low in small waves. However the risk increases with an increase of the wave height. The results of the lifeboat and the “fall” system tests have been compared with the previous results (Tsychkova and Rutgersson, 2001a and 2001c). Test results of the lifeboat launching in the longer waves correlate good with previous tests (Tsychkova and Rutgersson, 2001a). The drift speed of the mother ship in these waves is very small therefore the influence of drift on the test results is negligible. In the shorter waves the drift motion of the mother ship influence the risk through collisions between the ship and the lifeboat after the lifeboat enters the water. According to the wave measurements the wave climate on the leeward side of the drifting ship model is the same as for the ship model without drift which indicate that the collisions depend on the drift motion of the mother ship.
The results of the “fall” systems investigation are in good correlation with previous testing of this system (Tsychkova and Rutgersson, 2001c). Increase of the launching speed compared to the conventional system decrease the risk for impacts against the ship side. How-ever when the launching acceleration was higher than 0.5g the risk for impacts or water entry with a heeling angle increased. The chute system is exposed to the waves and the “mother” ship motions during a fairly long time when passengers embark the system. Due to large relative motions between waves and the mother ship and a close position of the chute system to the ship side the platform and the life rafts can be caught on a fender or other constructions on the ship side. Arrangements for stretching the chute and prevention of deformation of the chute form should be used to avoid situations when the chute can be jammed between the ship side and the platform. The total weight of passengers influences only slightly the risk of evacuation. However in the present study the chute system was tested with a maximal num-ber of occupants of 100, but possibly the risk can be influenced by a higher number of passengers.
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