Dear Readers, It is my great pleasure to present the 48th issue of the Scientific Journals of the Maritime University of Szczecin. This issue features recent findings from the fields of marine engineering, sea navigation as well as waterborne and land transportation. The Marine Technology and Innovation studies address fire safety, modelling the work of marine systems such as steam boilers and dynamic positioning systems, the use of liquid fuels and selected methods for constructing an ontology for automatic communication at sea. The Navigation and Marine Transport section contains articles focussed on the use of integrated marine navigation systems, optimising sea routes, analysing vessel domains and stochastic simulations for analysing the course of search and rescue missions at sea. The Transportation Engineering section contains studies examining inland waterway shipping, road infrastructure in the European Union as well as optimising parameters of port areas. The article discussing a theoretical framework for controlled pyrotechnical reactions as an energy source constituting a component for transportation from the sea bed deserves particular attention. I am also very pleased to announce that that our quarterly has been indexed by Global Impact Factor (GIF), an international database of scientific journals. The quality of the Scientific Journals of the Maritime University of Szczecin has been assessed using an in-depth analysis method to provide a Global Impact and Quality Factor. The journal’s scores for the last for years are as follows: 2012 – 0.415; 2013 – 0.528; 2014 – 0.780; 2015 – 0.854. This clearly reflects the increasing quality and standard of the work published by the journal, indeed our scores have increased by 61.7% over the last 2 years. I strongly invite authors to submit their articles and encourage readers to provide feedback. Access to the online version of this issue and previous issues is available at http://scientific-journals.eu/. Leszek Chybowski, DSc PhD CRP Editor-in-Chief

Automatic communication can help reduce errors in communication between navigators, and, consequently, increase the level of navigation safety. This article reviews some methods for the development of an ontology and looks into processes for communication at sea. Three basic elements of ontology can be distinguished: navigational information, communication and interface. The possibility of applying these methods for the construction of ontology was analyzed for a system of automatic communication at sea.

The quality of marine fuels is standardised by the international standard ISO 8217. As practice shows, even fuels that meet all standard requirements do not completely guarantee avoiding disruptions in smooth and safe operation of the ship. The future is likely to bring more cases of improper operation of vessels, sometimes leading to main propulsion failures. One cause behind main engine breakdowns is the introduction of new products on the fuel market that are intended to meet the ever-increasing requirements of environmental protection (e.g. low sulphur content). As a result, some fuels are chemically different from the previously used residual fuels. Using them in the engine room requires special care on the part of the ship owner and the ship’s crew. The article analyses two cases in which the use of conventional residual fuels resulted in main engine stoppage. The authors, bearing in mind the causes of those failures, focus on technical consequences of using marine fuels produced by currently employed technologies.

This article presents an overview of the mathematical models applied for the description of the pneumatic transportation of grain materials. Thus the model that has been selected is best suited for the description of the pressure drop in the pneumatic transport installation of solid fuel for a ship boiler. The research conducted allows for verification of the hypothesis that the ship’s motion is of minor importance and therefore it is possible at the design stage to apply the simplified model to determine the pressure losses in the installation.

The procedure of Linear Incremental Model (LIM) identification requires input and output signal deviations as opposed to their actual values. When considering a vessel as a plant, the sequence of input signals determines the traceability of the estimated LIM. The manual input signals selection procedure is a demanding and time consuming empirical procedure. In order to increase the speed of object identification and to eliminate input-output signal sequences which give unreliable data, an incremental linear model identification algorithm was developed and is presented. Moreover, the method of parameter selection for input signal pseudo-random sequences is described in this paper. Emphasis is placed on the practical aspect of astatic objects – ship’s LIM creation and input-output signal deviations selection method.

The results of tests presented herein can have practical applications for the adjustment of rotary speed to ensure constant contact between the measuring sensor’s spindle tip and the crankshaft journal of a piston energy converter, whose roundness profile is being measured. Analytical considerations have been supported by the results of simulations as well as experimental tests. The research has also shown that an increase in rotary speed affects the obtained profile shape and the value of determined roundness deviation.

When designing a transport vessel, one of the most important parameters assumed by the owner is the service speed of the ship. Service speed and motor power are calculated as an approximation of the ship’s speed in calm water (i.e., the contract speed) with the addition of the sea margin (SM). In current design practice, the addition of SM is not dependent on weather parameters occurring in liner shipping. This paper proposes a new method for establishing the value of SM depending on the type and size of the vessel and the average statistical weather parameters occurring on various shipping lines. The results presented in this paper clearly demonstrate that further research is needed to determine the precise relationship between the shipping and vessel type and the weather parameters on a shipping line.

This article discusses requirements for the extinguishing systems in the engine room. The sources of fire hazards in engine rooms were characterized. The causes and consequences of selected engine room fires that occurred within the last five years were presented. The basic requirements for the fire-extinguishing systems installed in engine rooms were scrutinized. The most commonly used fire-extinguishing systems in engine rooms are the ones containing a gaseous extinguishing agent. Their main advantages are short response time after agent release and the ability to supply an extinguishing medium to areas that are hard to access. The agent used in such systems does not cause damage and there is no need to remove its residues after fighting the fire, as in the case of other agents such as foams. As an example, a CO2 system was characterized, as it is the most frequently used in engine rooms.

Vessels conducting dynamic positioning (DP) operations are usually equipped with thruster configurations that enable the generation of resultant force and moment in any direction. These configurations are deliberately redundant in order to reduce the consequences of thruster failures and increase the safety. On such vessels a thrust allocation system must be used to distribute the control actions determined by the DP controller among the thrusters. The optimal allocation of thrusters’ settings in DP systems is a problem that can be solved by several convex optimization methods depending on criteria and constraints used. The paper presents linear programming (LP) and quadratic programming (QP) methods adopted in the DP control model which is being developed at the Maritime University of Szczecin for ship simulation purposes.

This article presents the underlying concepts of a mathematical model optimizing the routes of vessels carrying dangerous goods proceeding in the vicinity of passenger ferries. The method is based on the estimated risk of collision between a chemical tanker and a passenger vessel. Risk assessment was performed using three models. The first model determines the distance of the passing ships on the selected area on the basis of the AIS data. The second one is a stochastic model of navigational safety assessment, which provides statistical data on the probability of collision between the two chosen types of vessels. The third model determines the consequences of collisions between passenger ships and chemical tankers. The study defines the scope of the parameters affecting the objective function of vessel route optimization and their importance in the optimization problem

In this article we proposed a probability map that allows for location of the position of survivors. We used a probability model of a survivor drift to create the map. The model is based on the provisions of IAMSAR containing factors like leeway and wind current. Our proposal of utilizing a probability map diff ers from that shown in the IAMSAR by using other probabilistic methods. We performed analysis of a drifting raft using the Monte Carlo method. The map is closer to reality, since it is asymmetrical and generated by the simulation. However, preparing probability maps might be helpful in SAR action planning.

Wind has huge influence on take-off, landing and cruising of aircraft. Therefore measuring wind direction and speed as well as evaluating its structure are the most important tasks in meteorological support of flights. Wind shear, which is characterized by rapid changes of speed and/or direction, is one of the most hazardous phenomena for aviation. This phenomenon exists mostly in low tropospheric jet streams, areas of active atmospheric fronts, near convective clouds and strong temperature inversions. The paper proves that wind shear is mainly dependent on non-uniform layout of ascending and descending air currents and shows that this phenomenon can be detected by using ground sensors (ultrasonic anemometers), remote sensing methods (sodars, radars, wind profilers) and data from numerical mesoscale models.

The paper presents the results of study of convective cloud development over land and sea. The study was based on data from the Gdańsk-Rębiechowo radar and upper air sounding from the Łeba aerological station. Radar data from the classical channel were analyzed for the atmosphere scanned at 6 elevation angles of the antenna beam. Vertical profiles of the atmosphere along selected paths presenting radiolocation reflectivity in the detected cloud structures were produced using the recorded radiolocation reflectivity. Conclusions concerning the cloud structure, the physical state of water in the clouds and the thermodynamic state of the atmosphere were formulated as the results of comprehensive analysis of the radar and upper air sounding data. The obtained values of selected parameters and indices were used to quantitatively describe selected physical processes and to formulate forecasts concerning weather phenomena that might pose threats to land, air and sea transport as well as for some industrial and agricultural branches. The developed method of radar and aerological data processing will be applied to further studies of convective clouds in other regions. It will also enable to assess the impact of environmental conditions on the development of convective processes.

The ship domain is a criterion of safety assessment in ship encounter situations. This criterion allows us to identify dangerous situations in open sea and restricted areas, the latter characterized by natural limitations such as the shore line, or artificial ones e.g., boundaries of Traffic Separation Schemes (TSSs). This article analyzes ship domains in TSSs. These schemes, being established in areas where vessel traffic is intensive, as a rule have virtual traffic lanes that indicate the direction of vessel traffic flow. The influence of the ship size and type on domain shape and size in a TSS has been examined. The domains have been defined on the basis of AIS data and statistical methods. The analyzed ship domains have been approximated by ellipses. The authors have determined intervals of changes in domain parameters.

A ship sailing between the coasts of China, Japan, Korea and the Western coast of North America must cross navigational and geographical barriers of the Kuril Islands Archipelago and Aleutian Chain. Passes between the islands are particularly difficult and hazardous in winter. Most of them are covered by drifting ice for 5 months of the year. A number of allowed passes and offshore routes had been established by the maritime authorities of Alaska on the Bering Sea and in Aleutian Chain. However, use of other passes and routes is limited to exceptional cases only. Similar regulations exist in the Okhotsk Sea and other waters under Russian jurisdiction. The ship must then give grounds for a deviation from recommended or allowed passes and tracks and report other required information. Since January 1, 2015, it is mandatory to use the low sulphur fuel oil (sulphur content no higher than 0.01%) in the main propulsion system and auxiliary machinery when navigating inside the Emission Control Area (ECA) zone. Ships face a constant dilemma whether to remain in the ECA zone for the shortest or longer period of time, if the fuel and cost gain in relation to the entire route justify that. Available decision making support systems, like SPOS and Bon Voyage, do not solve that issue satisfactorily.

According to the recommendation of the IMO Resolution MSC.252(83), “Adoption of the revised performance standards for integrated navigation system (INS)”, the INS is introduced in order to enhance navigational safety by providing integrated and augmented functions to avoid geographic, traffic and environmental hazards. Its main task is to provide ‘added value’ for the officer of the watch (OOW), ship’s captain and pilot, to plan, monitor or control the navigational safety and progress of the ship. The system should support navigational safety by combining, processing and evaluating inputs from different connected sensors and sources to provide information, giving timely warnings of dangerous situations, system failures and degradation of the integrity of delivered and presented information. An INS is defined as such if workstations provide multifunctional displays integrating at least the following navigational tasks (functions): route monitoring, collision avoidance and alert management. The output data contains a description of the subsystems and devices included in the INS, and the principles of their cooperation and presentation of data, but it does not present recommendations for interfacing the INS with the ship’s radio communications equipment or standardised rules of operation by the user and presentation of information. These restrictions limit the possibilities of using this system in e-navigation. This paper identifies the importance of these limitations with respect to the need for further development of INSs, and presents proposals to solve this problem.

The depletion of inland deposits of natural resources and the increasing demand for some raw materials have resulted in the growing interest in deep sea exploitation of natural deposits. This gives an impulse to the mounting research and development of methods of exploitation of natural deposits from the sea and ocean floors, which are not limited to petrol and gas. The main area of difficulty in opencast mining methods conducted at considerable depths is the transportation process from the sea floor to the surface. The methods employed so far, such as continuous line bucket (CLB), hydraulic pumping (HP) and air-lift pumping (ALP), have both advantages and disadvantages. The most salient problem is their considerable energy consumption resulting in great costs, hence the need for the development of less expensive methods. The authors have suggested a new method, involving the use of pyrotechnical materials as a source of energy in the transportation from the sea floor and have presented its theoretical grounding. Special emphasis has been placed on determining the depth to which the method can be applied and the energy needed in transportation in relation to the density of the transported substance (output).

This article presents the optimized parameters of the Świnoujście seaport entrance and three-kilometer fairway linking Świnoujście and Szczecin, extended to allow the safe entry of 300-meter bulk carriers drawing up to 13.5 meters. The parameters were determined by a simulation-based optimization method, where the objective function and its constraint were, respectively, the reconstruction costs of that waterway section and the vessels’ navigation safety. The study made use of real-time simulation in coordination with the vessel’s human operator.

The aim of the present work is the influence of stray currents on transport systems, especially rail and city systems. Therefore, a study was conducted that simulated flow of stray currents on elements of the transportation system. Steel DOMEX, which has enhanced resistance to corrosion, was used as research material. It is rarely understood that transport systems can have reciprocal negative effects on each other. For example, the urban and long-distance rail transport systems influence the transmission systems (gas pipelines, information systems). A side effect of the functioning of railways is the formation of stray currents, which cause electrochemical corrosion in all undergrounded metal components. It has been demonstrated that the impact of stray currents on the metal parts is of corrosive nature, and their effects can be presented graphically and numerically. It has also been proven that the anodic potential causes a greater loss than the cathodic potential. Furthermore, the exposure to the elements, both in the process of corrosion and erosion, accelerates the destruction of the material.

New regulations enforced by the European Commission have greatly extended the possibilities to levy charges. The regulations include not only the TEN-T network, but also all motorways in Europe. The directive has given Member States the opportunity to charge heavy goods vehicles in a way to balance not only the costs of infrastructure but also those connected to noise and pollution caused by road traffic. The new provisions have enabled Member States to increase the charge during peak periods and to lower it in the off-peak hours in order to reduce traffic more effectively. The binding norms provide that the revenue from the charges should be destined to enhancing the stability of the transport section. The new rules provide a strong incentive to set aside new revenues from charging to finance certain types of transport projects. Poland has adapted very well to this new situation. The ever-increasing network of toll roads gives new opportunities for the development of transport. The increasing number of national and foreign hauliers guarantees constant investment in the development of road infrastructure and therefore a good use of the country’s geographical location.

This article attempts to determine the rules for lawful use of floating objects for residential purposes. It presents the currently existing legal solutions applied in Europe for such floating structures. Further, the article describes a classification of residential floating objects from the legal perspective. The existing regulations are analyzed with regard to the provisions of the Water Law Act and the Inland Navigation Act. Moreover, the paper describes three different types of water usage, i.e. common, ordinary and special, and discusses in which of these forms the residential use of public waters falls. The analysis allows for the determination of the directions of further research, so that an accurate procedure ensuring a lawful use of houseboats can be adopted.

This paper presents the problem of the “know-how” needed by the operators of vessel traffic supervision, monitoring, advisory and safety zone management systems required and maintained by marine navigators on their ships. The problem of the proper and correct interpretation of these systems is raised. Different types of ship safety zones, concerning both anti-collision and navigational purposes are presented, introducing the concept of hydrographic ship domain. Anti-collision and hydrographic domains were compared in order to establish mutual dependence. The factors influencing the two types of ship domains were analysed. The author proposed their merging and replacement with one universal domain, discussing its advantages and disadvantages. The analysis of the factors influencing the shape and size of such ship safety zones in conducted. The results in the different phases of research were presented and conclusions were drawn.

This paper contains research on and methods of determining values for basic parameters of steganographic systems. In particular, a parameter of concealing the presence of information in a digital environment is researched. Using this particular parameter increases the degree of protection of a message introduced into a digital environment. This parameter is one of the fundamental ones in case of implementation of a steganalysis system. Besides that, this paper contains a review of parameters of redundancy of a digital environment and the parameter of steganogram resistance to technological transformations in digital environments.

This paper presents mathematical relationships that allow forecast of the estimated sale price of new container ships, based on data concerning vessels built in 2005–2015. The presented approximations allow estimation of the price based on deadweight capacity (DWT) or the number of containers the ship will carry (TEU). The approximations were developed using linear regression and the theory of artificial neural networks. The presented relations have practical relevance in the estimation of container ship sale price needed in transport studies or preliminary parametric design of the ship. It follows from the above that the use of artificial neural networks to predict the price of a container ship brings more accurate solutions than linear regressions.

This paper presents the development of a methodology for the identification of possible intentional threats and key ship operations that may be significant for a ship’s security assessment, carried out by a Company Security Officer. The applicable international and domestic legal regulations regarding ship security systems are here analysed. Key factors and parameters that may provide support for the proper identification of realistic threats are also identified, giving practical relevance to this paper. The information reported here may be of support to those responsible for the development and revision of a ship’s security assessment as it addresses an important part of the maintenance of navigational safety of ship operations under the provisions of the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code – ISPS Code.

The results of testing the Bon Voyage system for an ocean voyage are presented in this paper. The main assumptions of testing were: ETD – 26.08.2016 and ETA – 05.09.2016, as established by the owner. All the data have been obtained from an actual voyage of a post-Panamax shipping container through the North Pacific. Testing was repeated again after completion of the voyage (post-voyage analysis). The data indicate that improved results with respect to fuel consumption could have been achieved using a different moment of second stage testing. Possible problems at planning, programming, and optimizing of the route leading through the ECA (Emission Control Area) zones with the use of onboard routing systems are also presented.