Active trim tabs are a key element of ride control systems on high-speed catamarans, but their hydrodynamic behaviour is more complex than conventional assumptions suggest. Experimental testing reveals that stern-tab effectiveness depends not only on tab angle and speed but also on pressure interactions beneath the hull, offering important insights for improving vessel stability, efficiency, and motion-control performance.

Structural ageing and fatigue remain major challenges for oil tankers, where long-term crack growth can threaten reliability and safety. By combining fracture-mechanics modelling with corrosion progression analysis, engineers gain a clearer understanding of how degradation influences structural life, highlighting the importance of integrating fatigue and corrosion effects into maintenance planning, inspection strategies, and asset management.

As shipyard operations become increasingly complex, understanding and managing safety risks requires approaches that go beyond traditional incident analysis. By combining fault-tree modelling with Formal Safety Assessment in a more structured framework, new methods are identifying hidden interactions and systemic causes of accidents, supporting more effective risk management, regulatory development, and workplace safety improvement.

Passenger safety analysis is becoming increasingly data-driven as evacuation modelling plays a larger role in vessel design and regulation. Drawing on the largest collection of full-scale passenger response data gathered at sea, new evidence suggests that evacuation behaviour varies significantly between ship types, challenging one-size-fits-all assumptions and supporting more realistic emergency preparedness standards.