Roll-on/roll-off vessels appear to be sensitive to rapid capsizing due to an abrupt ingress of water caused by maritime accidents. As a result of the damage creation, the flooded ship can experience intermediate stages, which might be more devastating than the final condition, as the sudden loading could significantly alter the ship stability characteristics. Far from a probabilistic analysis, the paper under study presents the state-of-the-art in regards to flooding physics by treating some relevant important topics. It sheds light on the transient and progressive flooding stages, focuses on relevant factors, and suggests combinations between factors that strongly affect the flooding before the steady state is reached. Furthermore, the authors comment on some points, which remain difficult to take into consideration either numerically or experimentally, and propose, where found necessary, recommendations for a more reliable assessment of the flooding process. This review shows that the intermediate flooding phase depends upon many factors, and its assessment could be adequate in calm water condition. The effects and interdependency between these factors still require further investigation. Therefore, we recommend carrying out a wide range parametric investigation into these factors, which consider their interdependency and encourage the application of the design of experiments methodology. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4002737]
