Some ten years back the world economic crisis has resulted in a significant reduction in the number of transported containers because of the decreased overall amount of transported cargo. As a result of this, so many container carriers have been laid up or had to operate with a relatively small amount of cargo. In such loading condition a stability of the container ships is very high.

In a majority of the cases the VCG, i.e. vertical centre of gravity of the ships is located below the coordinate of the lightship condition, and this happens because of the huge amounts of ballast water in the tanks located in the double bottom and wings plus very small amounts of cargo situated at the bottoms of the cargo holds. We required large amounts of ballast water to get the ship's hull and propulsion arrangements immersed and also to limit the longitudinal bending moment within the structure of the hull. In the classic loading condition higher amounts of cargo require less amounts of ballast and in these cases the stability is less.

Under the circumstances described within the present publication, some accidents have occurred to container ships in the recent past. Subject accidents caused damage to the vessels and heavily injured (and even killed) several crew members who were thrown through the ship's bridge because of the very high transverse accelerations due to the heavy rolling...

This book was written by the duet of authors - Elaine Murray and Valerie Lambert - with the intention to create a volume that could be used by all learners of English language, willing to practice their spoken English as well as practical writing skills used in everyday communication. The training material is presented in the form of short texts and dialogues - note that the audio version of all texts and dialogues has also been included in the pack presented to your attention, and it will definitely make it much easier for the students to work out the correct pronunciation of all words.

It shall also be noted that British English has been mainly used when recording all supplementary audio materials. The glossary is also there so the users may test themselves on the understanding of key items. The authors of the publication has concentrated on the everyday technical English that is being used in a huge variety of industries, including marine industry. The use of very specific language has been kept to a minimum; however, some small amount of it has been presented throughout the book. The students can use the book from the very first chapter or just choose the selected units directly relating to their professional needs. 

We compiled this work on Business English having in mind the need of the students who have already mastered basic grammar, acquired a fair vocabulary with some idiom, and who now wish to apply his knowledge to the study of writing business letters in English.

Therefore, we have given many examples of letters written in a clear, friendly, direct and positive style, keeping in mind needs of the students who require English for correspondence with English-speaking countries, and whose interest therefore lies mainly in import-export matters. In the present edition we have given 150 specimen letters as well as some 740 phrases and extracts from letters. No book of commercial correspondence could reproduce specimen letters in every style of expression used in commercial writing, but the carefully classified groups of phrases given will enable the student to build his own letters on the pattern of the specimens.

Many of the letters have been presented in a very attractive and realistic style. Many of the letters presented in this release of the book in a realistic and attractive style, reflecting the latest revisions done by the authors to make it even more practical and useful when used as a guidance to writing business letters.

Here is an excellent essential tool released to help readers embarking on their future careers in the field of mechanical engineering; it was specifically designed and published to provide all interested people with a wide range of useful theoretical and practical information that they would need during their studies and later, when they become professional engineers.

This is the updated edition of the Databook replacing all three previous releases that were also very successful and popular. The content of the volume has significantly increased in comparison to the very first edition of the Databook. What it means is that the coverage of the basic units and data has also been increased, and same applies to the engineering rules. The material provided in the book is covering all critically important aspects of structural integrity and also reliability of various components of engineering systems.

We would also underline that the content of the present Databook keeps reflecting the technical information that is considered necessary for students and professional engineers. Since the time of the initial release of this publication the number of European standards applicable to engineering has drastically increased, and all relevant changes have also been reflected in the latest release of the Databook.

This third revised edition of the Engineering Mechanics provides all interested people with all required information related to this field. The book starts with the general overview of the engineering mechanics, including the different formulations, external/internal forces, relevant sciences, key laws of mechanics and gravitations, force transmissibility, foundational concepts etc.

It is followed by the review section dedicated to the SI units and vectors. The second chapter of the volume deals with forces and their systems, including associated concepts, resultants of various force systems, for example concurrent, parallel, coplanar and spatial force system, gravitational and hydrostatic force fields etc. The third part of the book is dealing with the equilibrium analysis of the static systems and includes the coverage of the equilibrium concept, reactions by supports, equilibrium of particles, rigid bodies and systems of particles, and free-body diagrams.

Remaining chapters of the textbook are dealing with the simple structures, friction issues, thin rigid beams, central points, kinematics of particles and point in general, dynamic of a particle and of the mass centre, kinematics and dynamics of a rigid body, moment of inertia, motion of the central force, virtual work, vibrations, principles of the potential energy. An absolutely recommended source of information for students as well as for engineers and other specialists.

This textbook is covering the fundamental technical principles and all possible applications of different types of engines. The author has put the main emphasis on the reciprocating engines. Note that both compression-ignition and spark-ignition engines have been deal with in this publication; also take into account that the readers will find relevant information on both two- and four-stroke engines. All sizes have been covered and all recent technological developments and advancements have been included.

The book is a great volume for the students taking the internal combustion engine courses - the theory provided in the book has been presented in a very straightforward manner and is very adequate. Another advantage of this book is that it includes many informative examples, covering the modern types of ICE, i.e. internal combustion engines. The information is concise and the book is remarkably well-written.

The students will get all necessary knowledge and understand the basic working principles of the IC engines. The volume is full of informative diagrams visualizing the text part and making the theoretical part easier for the learners to understand and remember. At the same time, the style of explanation used by the author is very simple and that is what makes this book very useful even to the undergraduates.   

As the only type of commercial vessel, Liquefied Natural Gas carriers have in the past many years maintained the steam turbine as their preferred propulsion system. This trend has persisted despite the fact that all other types of commercial vessels changed to the more efficient diesel engines in the 1970s, as a consequence of the rising fuel prices and increased environmental awareness.

Moreover, diesel engines have also proved their reliability during many years of operation. The LNG carrier did maintain the steam turbine as its propulsion system because the natural evaporated boil-off gas from the cargo is available anyway, and because no other solution for the use of boil-off gas has been made available, at that time. There are, in principle, two ways of exploiting the boil-off gas, it can be burnt in a boiler, gas turbine or dual fuel diesel engine and provide power for the propulsion of the vessel, or the boil-off gas can be reliquefied in a reliquefaction system and returned to the cargo tanks. The reliquefaction of the boil-off gas from the LNG cargo makes it possible to increase the cargo quantity delivered to the customers, instead of using it as fuel, and to install more efficient propulsion systems on LNG carriers.

An LNG carrier is a special-purpose ship in which sophisticated technology is used to transport liquefied gas, a highly flammable cargo. Safety is, of course, paramount, as is the reliability and availability of the propulsion system of such a ship, because these factors influence the whole supply chain from the well to the consumer.

Though this publication has not been designed specifically for the marine industry application, we believe that the information contained in it and covering the possible failure that may occur to the bearings could be of some use for marine engineers.

We know that if every part of the machinery performed for the whole expected service life, the job of the technicians would be much easier - they would just have to replace the worn parts from time to time, as recommended by the manufacturer of the particular part. But the good mechanic is more that just a replacer of parts, he shall be capable of conducting a proper diagnostics of the machinery in order to determine why exactly the part has failed prematurely.

The publication contains a table showing eight most popular causes of the premature failure of the bearings. It shall also be noted that in most of the cases a premature failure occurs due to the combination of two or even more of the causes listed in the table. The authors of the booklet hope that it will serve as a very useful reference manual helping readers to properly determine the cause of the bearing failures; the material is presented in a very readable format and illustrated for easier understanding.