ABSTRACT
In order to limit the potential consequences of hits or other damage, vulnerability assessments are carried out during the design of the ship. Traditionally, vulnerability assessments focus mainly on optimizing the damage stability, such as described by e.g. (Boulougouris & Papanikolaou, 2004). Research on that topic still continues today (Boulougouris, et al., 2017). An advantage of this approach is that it can be used during all design stages. A preliminary layout with decks and bulkheads can be sufficient to provide an indication of the damage stability. In later stages the assessment can be made more detailed.
