Project Overview

Structural failure is a major cause of the wreckage of ships, vessels and tankers and causes loss of life and pollution of the seas and coastal waters of Europe as follows:

In 2004, the total amount of oil and oil products transported by sea reached the two billion-tonne/year mark (more than 40% of the total maritime traffic).  The European Union accounts for 27% of this traffic, with 90% of Europe’s oil arriving by sea.  Over 2.5 billion tonnes of oil is used around the world every year, and 3 million tonnes is discharged every year into the oceans as a result of oil carrying vessel and tanker failures.  Tanker accidents typically account for 12% of all oil pollution.  The Exxon Valdez incident released 40,000 tonnes of oil and caused an oil slick that covered 2,600 square miles. After the tanker Braer split, 85,000 tonnes of oil were released with a clean up cost of 16 billion Euros. Every year about 1,000 people die as a result of ship structural failures.

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme managed by REA-Research Executive Agency http://ec.europa.eu/research/rea ([FP7/2007-2013] [FP7/2007-2011] under grant agreement no [218432-2]