A Prototype Tool for Multidisciplinary Design Optimization of Ships

A multidisciplinary design optimization scheme for ships has been developed for use in an integrated ship design environment. Although the system was designed with the intention of using first principle analysis techniques, the containership design examples presented in this paper make use of surrogate parametric analysis modules developed to examine prob-lem formulation issues prior to the availability of the higher fidelity modules. A method of hull shape control based on a barycentric blend of basis hulls is developed. It requires rela-tively few design variables. In addition to general-purpose geometry, hydrostatic and re-sistance modules, containership-specific weight, cargo and economics modules were devel-oped. The measure of merit is taken to be the required freight rate. Optimal ship size is found to depend largely on port loading and unloading capabilities. The required freight rate increases and the speed of the optimal ship decreases as voyage length is decreased or fuel cost is increased