Dynamic Separation of Solid Bulk Cargoes

Dynamic separation is a failure mode in which a wet solid bulk cargo separates during the voyage into a liquid slurry above a solid base, producing a free surface that can move the centre of gravity even though the cargo as a whole has not liquefied in the classic sense. It is a distinct phenomenon from liquefaction and was recognised in the IMSBC Code later.

The full article will cover the mechanism and the conditions that produce it, and the casualty investigation work that identified it in bauxite cargoes. It will trace how it entered the Code, first within an individual schedule for bauxite fines and subsequently in the general definitions, where the Group A definition was rewritten to cover cargoes possessing a hazard due to moisture that may result in liquefaction or dynamic separation.

It will also cover what changed for practitioners as a result: the cargoes now caught by the Group A definition that were not before, the testing and certification consequences, and the operational precautions, since the sections of the Code dealing with cargoes that may liquefy were retitled to cover both phenomena together.