Page 135 - Failure Analysis Case Studies II

120

Fig. 5. General view of the stern section of the MV Kurdistan

families were picked up from the two lifeboats launched. The chief officer was rescued by helicopter
on 16 March. The stern section of the ship was subsequently salvaged and towed to dry dock at St
John, New Brunswick, docking on 15 April, after the oil had been pumped out of the remaining
tanks (Fig. 5). The bow section was sunk on 1 April to prevent further pollution. Over 5000 tons of
bunker oil had been lost from the rupture of the No. 3 centre tank alone.
On 11 April, the Welding Institute (TWI) was called in by Mr T. Chorley, Chief Ship Surveyor
of the U.K. Department of Trade (DOT), Sunley House, Holborn, London, to assist one of their
senior ship inspectors in surveying the ship on docking. Dr Ganvood of TWI accompanied Mr
Hume of the DOT to Canada on 15 April to make the inspection. The inspection was carried out
employing a platform controlled by a crane to inspect the ship's sides and check fracture surfaces,
and, by wading along the dock floor, to inspect the fracture faces of the longitudinals, centre keel
and bottom plate (Fig. 6).
As a result of this visit, TWI was commissioned to undertake a detailed technical investigation
into the causes of the fracture. Six samples were extracted from the vessel for the investigation,
which was completed and reported in April 1980 by TWI. The Kurdistan was subsequently
towed to Amsterdam, where it received a new front and returned to sea.
Although no lives were lost, because of the serious environmental problems caused by the oil pollution
resulting from the breaking in two of a well-found vessel less than 6 years old, the U.K. and Canadian
authorities agreed to the holding of a formal investigation. This public enquiry was held in London
before Mr R. F. Stone QC, starting on 12 January 1981 and lasting 51 days. The report of the
investigation [2] was published in 1982. Subsequently, a paper on the casualty was presented to RINA
in 1987 [3], and a description of the fracture mechanics methods used was given in [4].
This paper outlines the conclusions of the investigations and subsequent publications, and com-
pares the predictions used in the original study with those obtained from the latest revisions to the
fracture mechanics assessment procedures [5].

2. PRELIMINARY INSPECTION OF THE VESSEL AT St JOHN DRY DOCK-
16 & 17 APRIL 1979

(To provide historical accuracy, the text of the preliminary inspection from [l] is repeated here with
no editorial changes apart from the removal and renumbering ofjigure references.)