Failures of marine propulsion components or systems can lead to serious consequences for a vessel, cargo and the people onboard a ship. These consequences can be financial losses, delay in delivery time or a threat to safety of the people onboard. This is why it is necessary to learn about marine propulsion failures in order to prevent worst-case scenarios. This paper aims to provide a review of experimental, analytical and numerical methods used in the failure analysis of ship propulsion systems. In order to achieve that, the main causes and failure mechanisms are described and summarized. Commonly used experimental, numerical and analytical tools for failure analysis are given. Most indicative case studies of ship failures describe where the origin of failure lies in the ship propulsion failures (i.e., shaft lines, crankshaft, bearings, foundations). In order to learn from such failures, a holistic engineering approach is inevitable. This paper tries to give suggestions to improve existing design procedures with a goal of producing more reliable propulsion systems and taking care of operational conditions.

Firefighting and evacuation training are important tasks in maritime education and training, especially for crews working on large passenger ships, to ensure the safety of the vessel, cargo and passengers. With the evolution of virtual reality (VR) technology and the introduction of wearable hardware, a change in paradigm has happened in firefighting and evacuation training where these new technologies are being introduced. This paper serves as a review on the use of VR technology in maritime firefighting and evacuation training, trying to answer the following questions: what is the current state of using VR technology, and what are the research gaps that need to be addressed to further accelerate the implementation of VR? Research shows that other industries have adopted the use of VR technology relatively quickly, but the maritime industry still seems reluctant. As for the research gaps, the physics-based modelling of fire spread is discussed along with two other topics: the lack of immersive solutions for evacuation and the potential for developing search and rescue scenarios onboard a ship.

Extreme environments, such as marine environments, have negative impacts on welded steel structures, causing corrosion, reduced structural integrity and, consequently, failures. That is why it is necessary to perform an experimental research sea exposure effect on such structures and materials. Research presented in this paper deals with the mechanical behavior of butt-welded specimens made of AH36 shipbuilding steel when they are exposed to a natural marine environment (water, seawater, sea splash) for prolonged periods (3, 6, 12, 24, and 36 months). The usual approach to such research is to perform accelerated tests in a simulated laboratory environment. Here, relative mass change due to corrosion over time is given along with calculated corrosion rates. Corroded surfaces of specimens were inspected using optical and scanning electron microscopy and comparison, based on the numbers and dimensions of the corrosion pits (diameter and depth) in the observed area. As a result, it can be concluded that exposure between 3 and 6 months shows significant influence on mass loss of specimens. Further, sea splash generally has the most negative impact on corrosion rate due to the combined chemical and mechanical degradation of material. Pit density is the highest at the base metal area of the specimen. The diameters of the corrosion pits grow over the time of exposure as the pits coalesce and join. Pit depths are generally greatest in the heat affected zone area of the specimen.