The Dynamic Positioning mode operation of vessels, especially those related to the offshore oil industry, requires rigorous reliability analysis in order to eliminate the dangerous consequence of loosing position or to create a procedure when the consequence can not be eliminated. In general, the reliability analysis of the Dynamic Positioning System (DPS) is performed through Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA). In this paper the FMEA procedure is proposed taking into account the failure data reported in IMCA DP Incidents Reports. The idea of this procedure is to analyze and improve the system configuration during preliminary design in terms of the reliability considering critical failures. To complete the analysis, the consequence is evaluated through dynamical simulations for offloading operation in tandem configuration. The simulations results indicate the need to improve the DPS configuration and three modifications are proposed to compensate and create redundancy to avoid occasional failures of the propellers are proposed.

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