Accelerating Innovation through the Integration of Risk-Based Design and Model-Based Systems Engineering
A Structured and Traceable Approach to Integrating RBD Artefacts within MBSE
C. Verhoeven (TU Delft - Mechanical Engineering)
A.A. Kana – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Mechanical Engineering)
J.L. Gelling – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Mechanical Engineering)
Koen Droste – Mentor (Damen Naval)
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Abstract
Risk-based design (RBD) has become increasingly important in naval ship design as traditional, prescriptive regulations struggle to keep pace with technological innovation and system complexity. Innovative concepts often fall outside the assumptions embedded in existing rules, requiring designers to justify safety and performance on risk grounds rather than on compliance alone. At the same time, model-based systems engineering (MBSE) is widely used to manage system complexity, yet risk information is still predominantly captured in document-based artefacts that remain weakly connected to system models.
This separation between design models and risk documentation results in fragmented traceability, excessive documentation overhead, and limited reuse of risk knowledge as designs evolve. While previous work has addressed process-level integration between RBD and MBSE, the question of how qualitative RBD artefacts can be meaningfully represented within system models remains largely unresolved.
This thesis proposes a new method that aims to address this challenge. The results show that qualitative RBD artefacts can be embedded as explicit, traceable elements within an MBSE environment by integrating hazards and acceptance criteria directly into functional system models. Using a representative naval bunkering scenario as a pilot case, hazards are linked to functional chains and supported by model-based criteria that underpin ALARP (as low as reasonably possible) decision-making. This enables risks to be evaluated in the context of system behaviour and architectural allocation, rather than as isolated compliance documents.
Compared to traditional document-based RBD workflows, the proposed approach reduces reliance on manual traceability and supports more context-aware risk reasoning in all design phases. These results indicate that combining MBSE and RBD not only mitigates the limitations of prescriptive regulation, but also provides a more robust foundation for informed decision-making in innovation-driven naval ship design.