In August 2000 the russian submarine "Kursk" sank after a horrible accident in the Barents sea near Murmansk. All 118 saylors lost their lives in this tragedy. The Russian government decided to salvage the Kursk until autumn 2001. Under coordination of the Dutch consortium Smit Mammoet, several companies worked together in this complex and extremely short-timed project. Nothing comparable had been done before. The engineers of the German company IgH have been responsible for a complete simulation system, that described the hydromechanics and the so called heave compensation system, what was actually an essential part of the lifting system. The main purposes of the simulation system were: calculation of forces and motion of barge and Kursk; simulation of exceptions and their handling, e.g. fault of strands; training of the operating team; development and testing of the heave compensation control system; observation of the whole actual lifting process. The simulation system has been developed and processed under Linux. This phantastic operating system has been run in a heterogenous environment cooperating with other operating systems and also with dozens of control units. It's enormous efficiency, reliability and flexibility has been the prerequisite for the final success.

Linux at the "Kursk"-Salvage can be seen as an example of Unix in a quite extreme environment. It has been used for preparation purposes such as simulation and training. But it also took part during the actual lifting process in the rough Barents sea. Once more Linux showed it's remarkable usefulness and reliability. The properties of Linux concerning software development, network communication and efficiency could be found extremely valuable in a complicated and dangerous project.

Last modified: Mon, 9 Jun 2003 21:08:47 +0200