Last May, at MSC 96, the IMO recognised that the harmonised CSR met the goals and functional requirements of the organisation’s own Goal-based Ship Construction Standards. It was the joint venture’s hope that other societies would recognise the value of the suite and consider adopting it, but so far that has not happened and ClassNK and DNV GL both operate using their own software. Two class societies – ABS and LR – have tried to dispel this idea by jointly establishing Common Structural Rules Software LLC (CSRS) to provide industry with a validated and verified suite of software tools for CSR. However, despite the concept of common rules having been devised to address the issue of individual classification societies competing on lowered standards, there were still many who did not believe that the rules would be applied equally. The rules are applicable to all IACS members and with the advent of the common rules, class societies developed software to check and compare newbuilding designs against the requirements of the rules.
That work was completed in 2013 and the new harmonised common structural rules adopted in December that year took effect in July 2015. Class societies update CSR software suitesĪlthough the original CSRs were developed separately for oil tankers and bulk carriers by two different working groups, it was soon recognised by IACS that there was a need to harmonise the two sets into a single version.
