A study on reliability-based inspection planning – Application to deck plate thickness measurement of aging tankers

In order to conduct a timely and effective inspection to avoid the ultimate failure of deck plate, a reliability-based procedure for inspection planning is introduced. A review of the uncertainties in deriving the capacity of deck plate and through life degradation effects on tanker structural integrity is given. Using the Latin Hypercube sampling method to perform the Monte Carlo Simulation, the time-variant failure probabilities of deck plate are computed, then compared with target values. Based on the comparison, the time for thickness measurement of deck plate is predicted. A total of 1080 cases for nine sample tankers are analyzed to illustrate the procedure, including sensitivity and parametric studies. This paper is a sequel to the preceding paper [6], where a semi-probabilistic approach is presented to assess the time-variant ultimate strength of aging tanker’s deck plate considering corrosion wastage.

► In this paper, a reliability based procedure for inspection planning is introduced.
► The purpose is to conduct a timely and effective inspection for aging tankers.
► Uncertainty studies have been carried out.
► A total of nine sample tankers are selected to illustrate the procedure.