Konon V. Improvement of the container cargo monitoring process for ensuring the safety of maritime transportations

Trends in the development of the global container fleet, its replenishment with ultra-large container ships, bring both obvious advantages and significant risks, particularly for safety issues in the industry. The analysis of literary sources devoted to the problem of ensuring the safety of sea transportation on the container fleet, which had been carried out in this work, led to the determination of the main direction of the research, as well as the justification of its relevance. As the part of the methodological support of this dissertation research, its technological map was formed. The request of practice, the topic of the work, its the purpose, the scientific hypothesis and the main task, which is represented by three separate components, was determined in accordance to the mentioned technological map. The object of the current research is the process of the cargoes’ temperature condition monitoring during their transportation by the container fleet. The subject of the current research is represented by the methods of the container cargoes thermal condition assessment and monitoring. The purpose of this dissertation research is to ensure the safety of sea transportation on the container fleet and reduce the negative impact of the human factor, by improving the process of the cargo condition monitoring on container ships and the corresponding identification of the ignition source. The main task of this dissertation research is to develop a method for assessing the background thermal radiation of container cargo and identification of the ignition source container using a certain number of thermal imagers in real time and a defined scheme of their placement, taking into account the "blind zones" of the thermal imagers’ common field of view. To solve the main task of this dissertation research, it was decomposed into the auxiliary tasks, namely: 1) development of a method for identifying the source of ignition in the field of view of a single thermal imager within the cargo space of a container ship in the presence of a certain number of observation objects; 2) determination of the necessary parameters and dependencies for drawing up a several thermal imagers’ installation pattern for the cargo space of a container ship, taking into account the ship's conditions of cargo transportation and the features of such a pattern; 3) development of algorithms for the temperature data processing and assessing the state of cargo, particularly in the "blind zones" of the common field of view of a certain number of thermal imagers, in the context of the container cargo temperature monitoring system. The scientific novelty of the results of this dissertation research consists in improvement of the processes of the container cargo monitoring and the corresponding determination of the ignition source-container by developing the new method and the model of the container cargo temperature automated monitoring system and the corresponding identification of the ignition source in real-time during sea transportation using thermographic equipment. Theoretical results and simulation modeling confirmed the scientific hypothesis about the possibility of using thermographic devices in the context of improvement of the processes of the cargo temperature monitoring on container ship and the corresponding identification of the ignition source in real time. The practical significance of the obtained results is that they can be used in the development and improvement of ship fire safety, monitoring and control systems for containerized, particularly dangerous, cargoes. The scientific results obtained in this dissertation research determine its scientific position: the identification of the ignition source in the cargo space of a container ship, as well as the assessment and monitoring of the temperature state of container cargoes, with the help of thermal imagers and appropriate methods of automating the specified processes, can be applied with in order to ensure the safety of sea transportation and shipping. The results of the current dissertation research are used in the educational process when teaching the discipline «Cargo transportation technology»; implemented into advanced training courses at the IPE "TCCS" of the NUOMA; implemented into the educational component "Research practicum", in accordance with the educational and professional program of the second master's level of training "Navigation and handling of sea vessels". Also, the obtained results are reflected in the report of the scientific and research work – No. DR 0122U201980, Section 4 – Development of methods for ensuring the safety of the ship's navigation during the transportation of dangerous goods, subsection 4.1 – Development of a method for the ignition source identification in the field view of a single thermal imager within the cargo area of a container ship).