An example: Midship configuration of a double hull VLCC

In response to several marine pollution incidents, mostly by oil spill from ships, the US recently enacted the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which mandates all oil tankers serving US waters to have double hulls. In connection with the double hull requirement of the Act, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (H.H.I.) developed structural design of 150 thousand tons deadweight class oil tanker fully incorporating double hull concept and now, several vessels are being built at H.H.I. in accordance with the newly developed design. Further, H.H.I. has been developing double hull design for VLCC. As the structure for VLCC largely varies by the number and location of the longitudinal bulkheads, H.H.I. has evaluated and compared the steel weight and influences in operational view point with a few alternative midship configuration. This paper provides the results of this comparison along with many illustrations showing the design configuration