A human reliability analysis for ship to ship LNG bunkering process under D-S evidence fusion HEART approach

LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) ship to ship bunkering process is quite a new concept for the maritime industry since the usage of LNG has been increasing worldwide. The LNG bunkering process poses a high risk due to human errors, while a minor error may be catastrophic. The expectation of the ship's crew is to carry out operations without any errors. Therefore, human reliability analysis (HRA) is paramount to improving operational safety during the ship to ship LNG bunkering process. In this context, this paper performs a systematic HRA under the D-S (Dempster-Shafer) evidence fusion-based HEART (human error assessment and reduction technique) approach. While the HEART quantifies human error for the tasks being performed, the extended D-S evidence fusion deals with the limitation of APOA (assessing the proportion of effect) calculation since it significantly relies on evaluating a single rater. The finding shows that human reliability for the ship to ship LNG bunkering process is 5.98E-01 and reasonable, but not at the desired level. The paper's outcomes will contribute to the utmost for LNG ship operators, safety inspectors, and ship owners to establish a safe and efficient ship to ship LNG bunkering process and minimise human error-based accidents.

Automated summary

This paper conducts a systematic human reliability analysis to assess the operational safety of LNG ship-to-ship bunkering process. The findings reveal that the human reliability is at a reasonable level but falls short of the desired level. This research outcome is of great significance for establishing a safe and efficient ship-to-ship LNG bunkering process and reducing human error-based accidents.