The Maersk Honam Boxship Explosion and Fire

Explosion and Fire on Boxship Maersk Honam on Voyage 806W on 6 March 2018 at 1520 UTC

R. Ashok Kumar, B.E.,M.E., Negentropist, Bombay Sarvodaya Mandal, 299, Tardeo Road, Nana Chowk, Mumbai-400007.

Comments to author at ashokuku@rediffmail.com

© 2018 Ramaswami Ashok Kumar

Abstract.  The explosion and fire on the boxship Maersk Honam at 1520 h UTC on 6 March 2018 at location approximately 10.05,65.37 was caused by world dam dynamics which resulted in slamming pressures greater than 250 MPa to be applied on the ship on 16^th February, 25^th February and 6^th  March 2018 by the world’s dams . On these dates at the times the slamming pressures occurred, the world’s dams also caused earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 MM(Mexico), 7.5 MM and 6.8 MM(at Papua New Guinea) respectively. The precautionary principle must be applied and such activities stopped till independent scientific investigations like the one described here confirm the dangers revealed here. This is especially so as the slamming pressure due to dam dynamics was significant: In Multiples of 250 MPa: 4.9 times on 16^th  Feb 2018, 36 times on 25^th Feb 2018 and 2.3 times on 6^th Mar 2018. About an hour after the application of this slamming dam pressure, the boxship exploded and caught fire at the bow cargo hold.

1.0 The Study

1.1 The Incident

See https://worldmaritimenews.com/archives/246607/four-crew-missing-from-giant-fire-stricken-maersk-boxship/

Figure 1. The bow cargo hold explodes and catches fire. Indian coastguard was on fire-fighting and rescue mission using nearby ships assistance.

 

Figure 2. The Details of the fateful Voyage of Maersk Honam Boxship from 13 February 2018 to 6 March 2018.

1.2 The state of knowledge regarding Boxships as of 2018

Jones (1997) performed an extensive survey of the studies related to dynamic plastic behaviour of marine structures that have been published over the last two decades. According to his review, the ship bottom plating can be subjected to impact pressure loads due to slamming and can collapse. For advanced strength design of ship structures, it is important to understand the collapse strength characteristics of ship plating under dynamic / impact in-plane and/or lateral pressure loads.See p 68 in  https://mafiadoc.com/queue/ultimate-strength_59ddf4531723dd338fe817ff.html

(Jones, N. (1997). Dynamic plastic behaviour of ship and ocean structures, Trans. RINA 139, 65-97.)

Again: Considerable effort has been put into the examination of bulk carriers although it might, in simple terms, be too late. For example, studies on bulkheads of bulk carriers appear to confirm inadequacies in their design, and in the connections to supporting structure. Attempts to exploit design-based or phenomenological based ultimate strength software have highlighted the weakness that it may not account properly for all possible failure modes if used outside its original terms of reference. Nor, in some cases, has such software necessarily been properly calibrated against existing quality test data. Some reported sensitivity study findings suggest that a lack of full appreciation of the problem under investigation exists.

The inherent ruggedness with respect to grounding of double bottom vessels has been clearly confirmed. Also, simply by varying a double bottom structural arrangement, the energy absorption capability can be doubled. However, the ‘Achilles Heel’ in such groundings is the welded connection between a major transverse member and the inner bottom plating.

1.3 With this brief and not the latest outline of the context, let us examine the Voyage 806 W of Boxship Maersk Honam from 12 February 2018  when it arrived into Qingdao port till it caught fire after explosion in the Arabian Sea at 1520 UTC on 6 March 2018. Extract of the voyage schedule and a scenario of shock inputs to the ship from world dam dynamics is captured in the following Table 1:

1.3.1 Shock Input Temperatures to Boxship Maersk Honam

Very high shock input temperatures to the boxship during its fateful voyage 806 W are estimated. For example on 16th February 2018 when a 7.2 MM magnitude damquake occurred, its estimated shock input temperature was 78.56 million degrees K. This is not an isolated instance. The Chinese cargo ship was attacked with a shock input temperature of 2 billion degrees K when a damquake of 6.9 MM occurred during its voyage on 29 March 2018. See Table Yuan Tai 789 below. These shocks may have lasted for milliseconds impulse sufficient to contribute to the damages and / or deaths and injuries.

1.3.2 Also see  Maersk Kensington suffers container fire

http://www.freshplaza.com/article/191336/Maersk-Kensington-suffers-container-fire

                                                                                                                                                                                                                             This fire comes just 9 days after a 6.8 MM magnitude damquake which occurred on 8 March 2018:

2018-03-08T17:39:50.510Z            -4.3887 -4.3887 153.2016              153.2016              15.22     6.8          mww  Papua New Guinea.

Last five ports of call at https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/MAERSK-KENSINGTON-IMO-9333010-MMSI-303657000

Port Calls

Last Port Call      Actual time of Arrival (UTC)

Nhava Sheva (Jawaharlal Nehru)              2018-04-01 04:36

Nhava Sheva (Jawaharlal Nehru)              2018-03-10 22:43

Pipavav (Victor) Port      2018-03-09 06:50

Jebel Ali              2018-03-03 02:06

Djibouti               2018-02-24 15:58

So the ship was at sea when it received the jolt due to dam dynamics on 8 March 2018

Vessel details:See https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:192644/mmsi:303657000/imo:9333010/vessel:MAERSK_KENSINGTON+

IMO: 9333010

MMSI: 303657000

Call Sign: WMKN

Flag: USA [US]

AIS Vessel Type: Cargo

Gross Tonnage: 74642

Deadweight: 84688 t

Length Overall x Breadth Extreme: 299.47m × 40m

Year Built: 2007

Status: Active

See also http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:192644/mmsi:303657000/imo:9333010/vessel:MAERSK_KENSINGTON#YA4QvMYwfglpv1KI.99

At a draught of 14.2 m, the displacement is  175031830 kg(Mass of the ship).

The sudden slamming pressure applied by dam dynamics is 4.4 times 250 MPa corresponding a dam content change which caused a strong earthquake of 6.8 MM on 8th March 2018, assuming that all the water moment applied by dam dynamics is converted to slamming pressure. When we assume that all this water moment is used to raise the ship's temperature, the shock input temperature is a whopping 103 million degrees Kelvin(K). Some portion of the water moment is converted to raise the temperature and the rest used in destabilising the ship.

1.4 Table Yuan Tai 789 below shows details of how dam dynamics damages ships catastrophically as was the case with Maersk Honam. The common antecedents on both occasions were the dynamics of the world’s dams.
1.5 See the following URL for details of damaging consequences of world dam dynamics to ships on voyages. 

https://www.fleetmon.com/maritime-news/?page=10&category=incidents

In each case you will trace back to significant dam content changes which result in impulse slamming pressures and temperatures. Modern civilization, a society of specialists is busy destroying itself and in the process leading to extinction of diverse species of life on this adorable planet.   

Note: Earthquake data is from USGS data base.

2.0 References

2.1 R. Ashok Kumar. 2018. PERFECT DESIGNS: Ignore root cause, get root shock- Dams the cause of Irma's Fury

Link: https://livingnormally.blogspot.in/2017/10/ignore-root-cause-get-root-shock-dams.html


2.2 https://indianexpress.com/article/world/titanic-is-back-replica-ship-set-to-sail-in-2022-following-same-route-5415405/
What if the root cause is being ignored here as well? Wait and watch.

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