Design of Innovative Ship Concepts Using an Integrated Decision Support System for Ship Production and Operation

The paper describes a concept of integrated decision support system for a methodological assessment of ship designs that provide a rational basic for making decisions pertaining to the design, production and operation. Main objectives of this research was to develop an integrated multiple criteria decision making environment by using the advanced design synthesis and analysis techniques at the earliest stage of the design process, which innovatively considers structure, production, operational aspects, performance, and safety criteria on a concurrent basis. Such support can be used to make more informed decisions, which in turn will contribute to reducing the life-cycle costs and improving the performance of those ships. The work has been realized through EU FP6 project IMPROVE and tested in through design of three ship of new generations. The product types focused are new generations and innovative concepts of LNG gas carrier, a large Ro-Pax vessel and chemical tanker