The Influence of Moisture Content on the Occurrence of Liquefaction During the Transport of Bulk Cargos by Ship
Keywords:
liquefaction, solid bulk cargo, moisture content, FMP, TMLAbstract
One of the most common methods for transporting large quantities of solid bulk cargo is by ship. This mode of transport involves certain risks because the cargo is loaded in bulk, without additional packaging. As a result, it can become further moistened by atmospheric precipitation, since ships are generally not covered. Moisture in the cargo is the most significant risk factor leading to liquefaction. Excessive moisture content in the cargo can cause liquefaction, which may result in the cargo shifting to one side of the ship, compromising the stability of the ship and in the worst case, causing it to capsize. One of the most important safety measures for this mode of transport is controlling the permissible moisture limit (TML). By reducing the initial moisture content in the bulk cargo before loading - through drying or proper storage - the risk of liquefaction can be minimized or prevented. In this paper, the critical (FMP) and permissible (TML) moisture content in a sample of fine-grained copper concentrate from Bor was determined using a standard method to ensure safe transport of bulk cargo by ship. Test results for a copper concentrate sample, with an initial moisture content of 11.49%, show that with the standard addition of water in increments of 0.4% to 0.5% per cycle, the obtained TML values are above the initial moisture content. The concentrate is suitable for transport by ship with appropriate precautions.
References
Altun O., Göller Z., The effect of filter aid reagent on CBI copper concentrate moisture. In Proceedings of the 23rd International Mining Congress and Exhibition of Turkey, Antalya, Turkey, 16-19 April 2013,
American Society for Testing Materials, ASTM C230 / C230M - 13 Standard Specification for Flow Table for Use in Tests of Hydraulic Cement, American Society for Testing Materials, 2013,
Annex Amendments to the International Maritime Solid Bulk Cargoes (IMSBC) Code Amendment 07-23 (Consolidated version of the IMSBC Code) accessed 27. 05. 2026.,
Bin Suhrab M. I. R., Rodzi M. A. M., Cargo Liquefaction Accident: A Study on Risk of Liquefied Solid Bulk Cargo, (IJESIR) International Journal of Science and Innovative Research e-ISSN: 2724-3338, 2021, 02(08), Paper id: 0100070IJESIR,
Ding S., Numerical study on vibration characteristics of a cargo ship, Ship Science and Technology, 2017, 39, 19-21,
Drzewieniecka B., Safety aspect of handling and carriage of solid bulk cargoes by sea. Scientific Journals, Maritime University of Szczecin, Zeszyty Naukowe, 2014, 39, 63-66, ISSN 1733-8670,
Ferreira R. F., Lima R. M. F., Relationship between particle size distribution and the PFD80 transportable moisture limit of iron ore fines, Powder Technology, 2023, 414, 118072, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2022.118072,
Ferreira R. F., Pereira T. M., Lima R. M. F., A model for estimating the PFD80 transportable moisture limit of iron ore fines, Powder Technology, 2019, 345, 329-337, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2019.01.024,
Holmes R., Williams K., Honeyands T., Orense R., Roberts A., Pender M., McCallum D., Krull T., Bulk commodity characterisation for transportable moisture limit determination, In Proceedings of the International Mineral Processing Congress, Québec City, QC, Canada, Publisher: Canadian Institute of Mining Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM), 11-15 September 2016, ISBN: 9781510859388,
Kowalczyk P., Gourvenec S., Solid bulk cargo liquefaction: numerical investigation and proposal of safety envelopes, Applied Ocean Research, 2025, 159, 104607, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apor.2025.104607,
Montewka J., Goerlandt F., Kujala P., Lensu M., Towards probabilistic models for the prediction of a ship performance in dynamic ice, old Regions Science and Technology, 2015, 112, 14-28, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coldregions.2014.12.009,
Munro M.C., Mohajerani A., Variation of the geotechnical properties of Iron Ore Fines under cyclic loading. Ocean Engineering, 2016, 126, 411-431, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2016.09.006,
Popek M., Investigation of influence of organic polymer on TML value of the mineral concentrates, Proceedings of ESREL; Kołowrocki, K., London, UK, 2005; 1593-1596, Editors: Taylor and Francis Group, Publisher: Research Publishing, Singapore, ISBN 978-981-94-3281-3,
Popek M., The influence of organic polymer on parameters determining ability to liquefaction of mineral concentrates. Int. J. Mar. Navig. Saf. Sea Transp. 2010, 4, 435-440, https://doi.org/10.1201/9780203869345.ch108,
Ren Y.L., Mou J.M., Li Y.J., Yi K., Monte Carlo simulation for the grounding probability of ship maneuvering in approach channels, Journal of Ship Mechanics, 2014, 18, 532-539,
Shen J. N., Nickel ore and its safe shipment, Advanced Materials Research 396-398, 2012, 2183-2187, https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.396-398.2183,
Tomanec R., Metode ispitivanja mineralnih sirovina u pripremi mineralnih sirovina, Univerzitet u Beogradu, Rudarsko-geološki fakultet, Beograd, 2000, pp. 312; ISBN 86-7352-013-4, (in Serbian),
Tugsan C., Colak I., Cargo Liquefaction and Dangers to Ships, Environmental Science, Engineering, Published 2015, Corpus ID: 171088853 (https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Cargo-Liquefaction-and-Dangers-to-Ships-Tugsan-Colak/985e7f19c76721ff4c8b1bc8e9e9e6cde90c4564), Accessed 26. 5. 2026.
Wang H.L., Koseki J., Sato T., Chiaro G., Tian J.T., Effect of saturation on liquefaction resistance of iron ore fines and two sandy soils, Soils and Foundations, 2016, 56, 732-744, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sandf.2016.07.013,
Wang Y.G., Tan J.H., Research progress on ship stability and capsizing in random waves, Journal of Ship Mechanics, 2010, 14, 191-201,
Wu J., Jin Y., Hu S., Fei J., Zhang Y., Approach to Risk Performance Reasoning with Hidden Markov Model for Bauxite Shipping Process Safety, Applied Sciences, 2020, 10, 1269, https://doi.org/10.3390/app10041269,
Wu J., Zhang J., Yu Y., Shentu Z., Xue M., Research on sloshing characteristics for liquefied iron ore and size optimization of anti-sloshing baffle based on data-driven models. Applied Ocean Research, 2025, 158, 104604, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apor.2025.104604,
Zhao Z., Wu W., Wang H., Zhou Y., Sun Y., Huang M., Zheng Q., Research on the influence of environmental loads on the rheological properties of laterite nickel ore during liquefaction. Applied Ocean Research, 2025, 154, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apor.2025.104418,
Zhao, Y.L., Meng, S.X., Safety transportation of easily fluidized cargoes. J. Dalian Marit. Univ. 2012, 38, 15-18.
