The Ship Structure Committee (SSC) met on Thursday, March 19th for its 2020 annual meeting. Attendees from each of the SSC’s eight member agencies discussed emerging topics in the field of ship design and structural engineering. Annually, the SSC solicits research project ideas from the public which, after a review process, may be selected for funding. The year’s top ten project ideas as voted on by the SSC are posted on the SSC
website.

The SSC was established in 1946 to investigate and determine the cause of brittle fracture experienced by World War II era Liberty ships. In the nearly 75 years since, as great advancements have been made in naval architecture and engineering techniques, the mission of the SSC to sponsor and coordinate research and development projects to improve ship design, construction, operation, inspection, maintenance, and repair methodologies has remained steadfast. Since the establishment of the SSC, it has funded and published more than 600 reports which form a compendium of knowledge on important topics related to ships and their structures. The entire catalog of reports are free to view and download.

For any questions about the Ship Structure Committee, please contact the Ship Structure Committee Executive Director, Lt. Braden Rostad, at (202) 372-1398. If you would like to be added to the Ship Structure Committee email distribution list, you may do so at the SSC website.

This blog is not a replacement or substitute for the formal posting of regulations and updates or existing processes for receiving formal feedback of the same. Links provided on this blog will direct the reader to official source documents, such as the Federal Register, Homeport and the Code of Federal Regulations. These documents remain the official source for regulatory information published by the Coast Guard.