Section 1 General

1.1 At the time of approval of the main scantling plans for new construction, or for an alteration or conversion, the relevant plan approval office will advise the Builders or Owners with a copy to the relevant LR London Class department if provision of a longitudinal strength calculation program is a Class requirement.

1.2 A program must have General Approval by LR before certification for a specific ship can be considered (See Ch 1, Ch 3 General Approval).

1.3 At the time of submitting test conditions for a particular ship, the Supplier/Shipbuilder is to identify the intended computer hardware to be installed, if known, in order that the status of the Type Approval can be verified. In cases where it is proposed not to use Type Approved hardware it will need to be demonstrated that the program can be run on a second independent nominated set of hardware on board ship in the event of failure of the principle computer.

1.4 Information on LR Type Approved computers and their suppliers can be found from Class Direct on the LR website, www.lr.org.

1.5 The plan approval office will advise the program supplier of a minimum of four conditions from the vessel's approved Loading Manual and/or Trim and Stability Booklet, which cover the range of load draughts of the vessel, to be used as Test Conditions. These conditions should include a combination of arrival (with 10% consumables) and departure at the deepest envisaged loading, one at light load (not lightship), one at an intermediate draught and a heavy ballast condition. Within the range of these test conditions, each compartment should be loaded at least once. A lightship condition is also required for information purposes.

Where the program has the ability to calculate cargo torsional moments, one of the test conditions is to demonstrate such a calculation.

For Bulkcarriers, where the program is required to assess local strength and flooded hold cases, test conditions demonstrating these are to be submitted.

In cases where the program is capable of carrying out grain stability calculations, at least two additional conditions showing trimmed (hold 100% full and with at least one hold partially filled) and untrimmed ends (all holds 100% full) as appropriate taken from the approved Grain Loading Manual are to be included.

Additionally, where the vessel is expected to carry containers or timber on deck, the conditions provided should demonstrate the program’s ability to take account of wind and water absorption respectively. The effects of icing would also need to be included where applicable.

In principle, all available compartments should be utilised and, where the vessel is able to carry heavy density cargoes (i.e. ore) with alternate holds empty, a test loading condition showing this must be included.

1.6 Preliminary data may be used in order to establish that the program functions correctly, but final data, particularly the final lightweight distribution, is to be included in the final test conditions submitted for approval.

1.7 The data contained in the program is to be consistent with that in the approved Loading Manual and/or Stability Booklet(s) and the test conditions should be equivalent to loading conditions contained in the approved loading manual. The Shipyard and/or program supplier should ensure this is achieved and attention is drawn, in particular, to the final lightship weight, LCG and VCG derived from the inclining experiment or lightweight check survey and calibrated tank data. In those cases where the program uses source data that is not in the Approved Loading/Trim and Stability Booklet, this will require to be validated as outlined in Para Ch 1, Ch 4, 3 Appraisal of Test Conditions for Stability Aspects 3.1 before the test conditions can be accepted.

Where a supplier has identified differences between the results of the program and those of the approved stability manual, these should be advised at the time of a submission for approval of test conditions and explanations given for the differences.

1.8 The ship's copy of the test conditions must be in English, in addition to a language readily understood by the user where this is not English. The supplier is also to supply to the ship a copy of the program’s user manual as specified in Ch 1, Ch 4, 4 User's Manual.

1.9 In the event that changes are made to the approved loading/stability manuals thereby rendering the test conditions invalid, new test conditions are to be submitted. If these changes affect the software, the certification will become invalid and re-approval will be required.

1.10 Special consideration will be given to those approved programs on board ship that are being upgraded to a newer version. Contact LR London for details.

1.11 Test conditions may be emailed to the relevant LR plan approval office in “pdf” format.