METHODS FOR SHOCK ANDVIBRATION EVALUATION APPLIEDON OFFSHORE POWER BOATS

Vibration is a part of human life. People use vibrations in many useful ways but eventually human exposure to vibration has become an impediment to human life. Health problems due to exposure tovibration and shock are common among the crew operating high speed craft (HSC). Whole body vibration and repeated shocks have been identified as one of the major causes for health effects amongHSC crew. Whole body vibration can affect health, comfort and performance depending on the magnitude, waveform and time of exposure. Therefore it is prudent the significance of consideration ofhuman exposure to vibration and shock when deciding the operational envelope of an offshore HSC. This report addresses this question in two correlated parts where it identifies the interrelationship between thehuman exposure to vibration and shock and the operational envelope of HSC. The first part consists of a state of the art review on methods and measures for evaluation of workplaces exposed to vibrationscontaining multiple shocks and select a suitable method to be used in the second part. The second part is a case study of a Swedish Coast Guard HSC, KBV 476, which describes crew exposure to shock andvibration using the method selected from the state of the art review, and discusses the results in relation to the risks involved with the crew in the perspective of short and long term exposure. Nature of thevibration exposure and the corresponding risk involved is then discussed with respect to the operational envelope of the craft.