The use of advanced materials for the construction on river cruise vessels according to the latest technical requirements for inland waterway vessels in the European Union

In 2015, the Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine (CCNR) created at its plenary session the European committee for drawing up common standards in the field of inland navigation (Comité Européen pour l’Élaboration de Standards dans le Domaine de Navigation Intérieure ‒ CESNI). The mission of the new body is to prepare and adopt technical standards in a variety of fields on inland navigation, and unify their standards for all EU countries. 26th November 2015 CESNI adopted the first resolution ‒ European Standard laying down Technical Requirements for Inland Navigation vessels (ES-TRIN). The document adopts in a standardised way the requirements contained in directive 2006/87/EC and in the Rhine Vessel Inspection Regulations. At the moment, ES-TRIN is not binding per se, by the time it will be referred in legal frameworks EU Member States. For this paper, the most important chapters of Directive 2006/87/EC and ES-TRIN concern engine design (chapter 8) and emissions of gaseous and particulate pollutants from diesel engines. It is worth to say that both documents has got the same regulations. 126 Wojciech Ignalewski, Joanna Sęk


Introduction
Reffered to the Directive of the European Parliament and the Council of 12 December 2006 laying down technical requirements for inland waterway vessel and repealing Council Directive 82/714/EEC (2006/87/EC), the ENI number can only be issued to: -vessels having a length (L) of 20 metres or more; and -vessels for which the product of length (L), breadth (B), and draught (T) is a volume of 100 m 3 or more.This Directive shall also apply, in accordance with Article 1.01 of Annex II, to all of the following crafts: -tugs and pushers intended for towing or pushing a craft referred to in paragraph 1 or floating equipment, or for moving such a craft or floating equipment alongside; -vessels intended for passenger transport which carry more than 12 passengers in addition to the crew; and -floating equipment.In 2006, an EC Directive laid down the technical requirements for inland waterway vessels, and this introduced full harmonisation of the technical requirements for inland waterway vessels and Rhine regulatory provisions.On the basis of this equivalence, the CCNR has recognised the validity of Community certificates on the Rhine.The requirements are the strictest and technically most advanced.Its flexibility can be seen from the range of implementation options: 1. Transitory provisions, so as to take account of the vested rights of older vessels.
2. Temporary 3-year provisions: before adopting a new technical rule, the CCNR may test it out for 3 years, following which the provision will be abandoned or definitively adopted.3. Waivers: vessel operators may request the use of technology other than that laid down by regulation if it can provide comparable guarantees.The use of alternative technologies as a result of the waivers may thus open the door to regulatory amendments.Every vessel navigating on the Rhine must have a vessel certificate issued after the boat has been examined by an inspection commission.Any Rhine craft can apply for a vessel certificate from any inspection commission, regardless of the relevant nationality.

CCNR
Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine is the oldest international organisation in modern history.Dating back to the Congress of Vienna (1815), the Central Commission is an up-to-date international institution with an administration that enables it to address effectively all the issues concerning inland navigation.The use of advanced materials for the construction on river cruise vessels...The CCNR created Observer State status in order to encourage the participation of the States not included in its activities.Eleven States currently have Observer status at the CCNR (Austria, Bulgaria, the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg, Hungary, the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic, Romania, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Poland, and the Republic of Serbia).
With respect to the technical requirements for vessels used in inland navigation, the CCNR and the EU have adopted identical regulations and have agreed to mutually recognize their vessel certificates.For the purpose of ensuring identical requirements as well as a common safety policy in the long term, a Joint Working Group (JWG) has been established with the mandate of preparing proposals for amending the technical requirements.

Activities
During the almost two centuries of its existence, the CCNR has achieved these objectives in a number of directions: -activity of regulating navigation on rivers, -maintenance of good conditions for navigation on the Rhine, -promotion of ecological inland navigation, -development of the law of inland navigation, -coordination of national regulations regarding the social protection of boatsmen, and -economic issues.

Committees
The plenary meeting's resolutions are prepared by committees and working parties (Articles 17 to 25 of the Rules of Procedure).These play a key role in the work of the Central Commission.There are about ten committees: - Protection in the context of working practices and every-day operations include: a) reducing emissions of harmful exhaust fumes, b) reducing carbon gas emissions, and c) handling of waste generated on board vessels.Fibre Reinforced Plastics (FRP), also known as Glass Reinforced Plastics (GRP),() is a modern composite material of construction for chemical plant equipment like tanks and vessels.Chemical equipment that range in size from less than a metre to 20 metres are fabricated using FRP as the material of construction.FRP Chemical Equipments are manufactured mainly by Hand Lay-up and filament winding processes.FRP are used for the construction of Superstructures on River Cruise Vessels.
SAERTEX GmbH were analysed for the use of FRP in inland vessels: a) River cruise vessels built with conventional design.
-Length: 110 m -135 m, Draught: 1.08 m -1.60 m, -Due to the draught, the vessels can be used only seasonally.b) "Concept for innovative river cruise vessels:" -facing new operating areas, -reduction of energy consumption and pollutant emissions, -extension of period of operation to shallow waters, with draught of 0.85 m -1.10 m.The use of advanced materials for the construction on river cruise vessels... -FRP has been successfully used for windpower technologies, in aircraft-, road-and rail vehicle construction, as well as in various maritime industries, -FRP combines the advantages of extreme lightweight construction with the highest demand of strength properties by targeted utilization and combination of single components FRP can configured optimally to the reguested material's properties.e) FRP product LEO (lightweight with extreme opportunities supplied by SAERTEX).
-LEO can be used for innovative river cruise vessels, -for the LEO -the strength and fire resistance of the sandwich panels can be improved independent of each other, -in the event of a fire the material is toxicologically harmless and as to smoke development -uncritical.
LEO is a ready-to-use system for the production of complex composite light weight parts in infusion technology, consisting of: -protection layer, -fire retardant infusion resin, and -multiaxial non-crimp-fabrics (NCF), specifically modified with fire inhibitor.The proposed solution is to use fiber composite FRP -composite polymer matrix.This allows for a significant reduction in the weight of the unit, reducing the burden of the gym, reduction of pollution missions.The body built using FRP composite is characterized by:

Reaction
-the loss of weight while maintaining strength requirements, the fulfillment of all standards regarding flammability, toxicity, and the release of harmful substances, -corrosion resistance, -very low amount of smoke arising in the case of inflammation, -replacement of 90 tonnes of steel for 40 tonnes of structures made of composite material, and -lowering the immersion of 1cm for every 10 tonnes of weight units.The structured body therefore has two key advantages to the one constructed in a conventional manner: -lowering the assumed weight of 50 tonnes, and -the reduction of immersion of 5 cm.
In the case of inland above-mentioned values, they are significant in terms of technical aspects and operational.In the case of the ships of this type, the weight is about 15,000 tonnes.The decrease by 50 tonnes is therefore noticeable.This is also closely connected with fuel consumption.For vessels navigating shallow waters, however, it is immersion that determines the areas in which the unit will be able to move.To reduce the immersion of 5 cm, we can observe an increase in the area of application of such a unit, increasing the number of days in the year when it can do its job.Steel areas -bottom, shell, and bulkhead deck (below red dividing line).
LEO sandwich panels have been investigated and tested in several EU projects: -BESST -Breaktrough in European Ship and Shipbuilding Technologies, -CONVINCE -Vulnerability Reduction Technologies for Large Maritime Composite Structures, joint European Defence Agency project.
Sun deck including the longitudinal and transverse walls and local deck's stiffenings underneath (above red dividing line).

Fig. 1 .
Fig. 1.Headquarters of Central Commission for Navigation of the Rhine in Strasbourg Source: retrieved from http://www.ccr-zkr.org(on the left); CESNI Experts -photo by W. Ignalewski (on the right).

Fig. 4 .
Fig. 4. FRP -areas in Inland Cruiser Vessel Source: based on Report LEO Saertex by Neptun Werft GmbH&Co.KG (Strasbourg 2014) the Budget Committee, -the Administrative Sub-Committee, -the Preparatory Committee, -the Economic Committee, -the River Law Committee, -the Police Regulations Committee, -the Inspection Regulations Committee, -the Dangerous Substances Committee, -the Committee for the Elimination of Waste and Environment-related Issues concerning Navigation on the Rhine, -the Standing Technical Committee, -the Committee on Social Issues, Employment and Professional Training, and -the Management Committee for Market Observation.The CCNR also has regular contact with OECD's International Transport Forum, and more occasional contact with intergovernmental Organization for International Carriage by Rail (OTIF) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Table 1 .
An example of toxicity values -functional integrity of test panel sustained after 60 mins of fire exposure.