Design environment for structural design: Application to modern multideck ships

Abstract

This paper presents a design environment capable of embedding multiple quality criteria for structural design and to provide the decision support problem (DSP) rationale for the concept design phase. The general mathematical model contains the analysis and the synthesis modules. The analysis module can be decomposed into six meta-systems of which two basic systems provide physical and environmental definitions of the problem/process and the other four are behavioural systems for modelling of response, adequacy, reliability, and quality. Synthesis modules enable the interactive design problem definition, usage of multiple optimization solvers (Monte Carlo- and fractional factorial experiment-based evolution strategies (ES-MC and ES-FFE), sequential linear programming (SLP), multiobjective genetic algorithms (MOGA), and multiobjective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO)) and five-dimensional graphic views of the Pareto frontier in design and attribute spaces. The methodology combines the fast concept exploration of design variants using generic finite element modelling (FEM) models and a two-step decision support procedure (based on topology and scantling optimization) in the concept design phase. The benefits of using the presented approach are demonstrated on the complex problem of multideck ships with hull—superstructures interaction. The first example shows the good accuracy of the primary response analysis of the cruise ship generic three-dimensional FEM model. The second example briefly presents the complete structural optimization of the International Ship and Offshore Structures Congress (ISSC'06) passenger ship benchmark.

Keywords

design environment ship structural design concept phase multideck ships multicriteria decision making

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