4.1 A design team acceptable to the Administration
should be established by the owner, builder or designer and may include,
as the alternative design and arrangements demand, a representative
of the owner, builder or designer, and expert(s) having the necessary
knowledge and experience in fire safety, design, and/or operation
as necessary for the specific evaluation at hand. Other members may
include marine surveyors, vessel operators, safety engineers, equipment
manufacturers, human factors experts, naval architects and marine
engineers.
4.2 The level of expertise that individuals should
have to participate in the team may vary depending on the complexity
of the alternative design and arrangements for which approval is sought.
Since the evaluation, regardless of complexity, will have some effect
on fire safety, at least one expert with knowledge and experience
in fire safety should be included as a member of the team.
4.3 The design team should:
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.1 appoint a co-ordinator serving as the primary
contact;
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.2 communicate with the Administration for advice
on the acceptability of the engineering analysis of the alternative
design and arrangements throughout the entire process;
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.3 determine the safety margin at the outset of
the design process and review and adjust it as necessary during the
analysis;
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.4 conduct a preliminary analysis to develop the
conceptual design in qualitative terms. This includes a clear definition
of the scope of the alternative design and arrangements and the regulations
which affect the design; a clear understanding of the objectives and
functional requirements of the regulations; the development of fire
scenarios, and trial alternative designs. This portion of the process
is documented in the form of a report that is reviewed and agreed
by all interested parties and submitted to the Administration before
the quantitative portion of the analysis is started;
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.5 conduct a quantitative analysis to evaluate
possible trial alternative designs using quantitative engineering
analysis. This consists of the specification of design fires, development
of performance criteria based upon the performance of an acceptable
prescriptive design and evaluation of the trial alternative designs
against the agreed performance criteria. From this step the final
alternative design and arrangements are selected and the entire quantitative
analysis is documented in a report; and
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.6 prepare documentation, specifications, and
a life-cycle maintenance programme. The alternative design and arrangements
should be clearly documented, approved by the Administration, and
a comprehensive report describing the alternative design and arrangements
and required maintenance program should be kept on board the ship.
An operations and maintenance manual should be developed for this
purpose. The manual should include an outline of the design conditions
that should be maintained over the life of the ship to ensure compliance
with the approved design.
4.4 The fire safety objectives in SOLAS regulation II-2/2 and the purpose statements
listed at the beginning of each individual regulation in chapter II-2 should be used to provide
the basis for comparision of the alternative design and arrangements
to the prescriptive regulations.