A Practical Method for the Rational Design of Ship Structures

A practical, rationally based method is presented for the automated optimum design of ship structures. The method required the development of (a) a rapid, design-oriented finite-element program for the analysis of ship structures; (b) a comprehensive mathematical model for the evaluation of the capability of the structure; and (c) a cost-effective optimization algorithm for the solution of a large, highly constrained, nonlinear redesign problem. These developments have been incorporated into a program called SHIPOPT. The efficiency and robustness of the method is illustrated by using it to determine the optimum design of a complete cargo hold of a general-purpose cargo ship. The overall dimensions and the design loads are the same as those used in the design of the very successful SD14 series of ships. The redesign problem contains 94 variables, a nonlinear objective function, and over 500 constraints of which approximately half are non-linear. Program SHIPOPT required approximately eight minutes of central processing unit time on a CDC CYBER 171 to determine the optimum design.