An optimization approach for fairing of ship hull forms

This paper presents a numerical fairing procedure to be used at the preliminary design stage to create high-quality ship hull form geometry. The procedure is based on a variational optimization approach in which a fairness measure related to the surface curvature is the objective function to be minimized subject to a set of geometric constraints to ensure that the final form has the required geometric characteristics. The optimization variables are selected as the control points of a B-spline surface representing the initial hull form. A nonlinear direct search technique is employed to solve the problem. The methodology is applied for typical ship forms to indicate that, provided that the designer can specify appropriate design objectives and geometric constraints, the methodology can produce alternative hull forms with significantly improved fairing characteristics. The choice of the fairness objective function is shown to have a crucial effect on the quality of the hull surface. Highly nonlinear exact fairness functionals yield surfaces of high quality at the expense of high-computerized effort.     

Parametric design of sailing hull shapes

The author presents an original algorithm aimed at automatically generating the hull shape of a sailing yacht starting from an initial set of parameters. The procedure consists of two steps. First one keel line and a Designed Water Line (DWL in the following) are faired according to a set of parameters, say length of water line, canoe body draft, stem angle and some adimensional coefficients. This information is then used to fair the hull surface, which must in turn fulfil more prerequisites (parameters like displaty cement, floatation area and related coefficients). The hull is defined by means of a B-spline surface, the fairing of which is ensured by allowing for all the imposed objectives and constraints. An optimisation technique based upon the gradient method ensures that a reliable solution is obtained in a very short time.     

Optimization of fishing vessels using a Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm

A fishing boat hull is used as an example of how hull form optimization can be accomplished using a Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm (MOGA). The particular MOGA developed during this study allows automatic selection of a few Pareto Optimal results for examination by the designers while searching the complete Pareto Front. The optimization uses three performance indices for resistance, seakeeping and stability to modify the hull shape to obtain optimal hull offsets as well as optimal values for the principal parameters of length, beam and draft. The modification of the 148/1-B fishing boat hull, the parent hull form of the ?stanbul Technical University (?TÜ) series of fishing boats, is presented by first fixing the principal parameters and allowing the hull offsets to change, and secondly by simultaneously allowing variation of both the principal parameters and the hull offsets. Improvements in all three objectives were found. For further research the methodology can be modified to allow for the addition of other performance objectives, such as cost or specific mission objectives, as well as the use of enhanced performance prediction solvers. In addition, one or more hulls could be evaluated by experiment to validate the results of using this particular optimization approach.     

Parametric studies on seaworthiness of SWATH ships

This paper reports seakeeping studies performed on a parametrically varied set of SWATH hull forms. The SWATH form, because of its de-linked nature of design affords many variations of the underwater hull geometry without affecting overall deck length and beam. For a given displacement, the hull form can be varied in terms of length, basic section shape, maximum area of cross section of under water hull and strut water plane shape. Using these variants, a parametric family of hull forms has been generated employing Chebychev polynomial scheme for representing sectional area distribution and using a bi-quintic B-spline based surface definition scheme. Not all designs offer optimal performance in a given sea state. A twin-hull motion analysis program SEDOS has been used to study the motions and other dynamic effects. Setting criteria for operability, these dynamic effects have been quantified into a single value namely, operability index. The approach here fulfils an investigation at the design stage in order to tap the full advantage of the SWATH form. The study brings out a methodology for assessment of the SWATH at the design stage highlighting interesting results related to section shapes and sectional area distribution. Thus, combining a newly developed interactive surface generation scheme with an analysis package, a rapid assessment tool is offered for new design.     

Optimization Design of Minimum Total Resistance Hull Form Based on CFD Method

In order to reduce the resistance and improve the hydrodynamic performance of a ship, two hull form design methods are proposed based on the potential flow theory and viscous flow theory. The flow fields are meshed using body-fitted mesh and structured grids. The parameters of the hull modification function are the design variables. A three-dimensional modeling method is used to alter the geometry. The Non-Linear Programming (NLP) method is utilized to optimize a David Taylor Model Basin (DTMB) model 5415 ship under the constraints, including the displacement constraint. The optimization results show an effective reduction of the resistance. The two hull form design methods developed in this study can provide technical support and theoretical basis for designing green ships.     

Hull form reliability-based robust design optimization combining polynomial chaos expansion and maximum entropy method

In the ship design optimization process, the neglect of the unavoidable uncertainty of parameters in the actual navigation and experimental observations, may lead to a bad result with some hidden dangers in practical applications. Considering the influence of the uncertainty, a new and effective hull form reliability-based robust design optimization (RBRDO) framework, including the hull form modification module and RBRDO module, has been developed and tested in the present work. Radial basis function method is utilized as the parametric hull surface modification technique to generate a series of smooth hull forms while combining polynomial chaos expansions (PCE) method with maximum entropy method (MEM) to conduct the uncertainty analysis for the prediction of the mean and the standard deviation of the objective and the failure probability of constraints. To verify the validity of the method, hull form design optimization of the bow of KCS model is implemented under the influence of the uncertainty. Numerical results indicate that the proposed RBRDO framework is effective compared with traditional Monte Carlo method. Meanwhile, compared with traditional DO case, RBRDO case has higher adaptability to the environmental uncertainty with the lower failure probability, which ensure the robustness and reliability of the optimal hull form.     

An inverse hull design approach in minimizing the ship wave

The Levenberg–Marquardt Method (LMM) and a panel code for solving the wave-making problem are utilized in an inverse hull design problem for minimizing the wave of ships. A typical catamaran is selected as the example ship for the present study. The hull form of the catamaran is described by the B-spline surface method so that the shape of the hull can be completely specified using only a small number of parameters (i.e. control points). The technique of parameter estimation for the inverse design problem is thus chosen. The LMM of parameter estimation, which is the combination of steepest descent and Newton’s methods, has been proven to be a powerful tool for the inverse shape design problem. For this reason it is adopted in the present study.In the present studies, the inverse hull design method can not only be applied to estimate the hull form based on the known wave data of the target ship but can also be applied to estimate the unknown hull form based on the reduced wave height. The optimal hull forms of minimizing wave for a typical catamaran in deep water at service speed and at the critical speed of shallow water are estimated, respectively. Moreover, a new hull form with the combining feature of the optimal hull forms for deep water and shallow water is performing well under both conditions. The numerical simulation indicates that the hull form designed by inverse hull design method can reduce the ship wave significantly in comparison with the original hull form.     

Ship hull characteristics from surface wake synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery

Improved data collection and processing technologies along with the use of high resolution spectral techniques soon will make it possible to obtain estimates of the Kelvin wave amplitude function A(θ), ship speed U, and ship heading α from synthetic aperture radar images of ship wakes. This paper presents a series of methods for deriving additional hull characteristics such as the length L, volume V, and offsets ζ(x,z) from this spectral and surface wave information. The first method estimates the ship length by taking the Fourier transform of the slope amplitude function |kA|. The remaining estimates make use of the hull inversion code developed at the University of Michigan by Wu in 1991. The accuracy of the hull offsets predicted by the code is first determined for various options for solving the linear inversion problem. In this case, both the magnitude and phase of A(θ) are known in addition to the hull draft H. Since the draft is not often known a priori, the accuracy of the code is determined next by predicting the volume of the ship for an approximate though plausible input value of H. Finally, the accuracy of the non-linear inversion problem of obtaining offsets along the entire hull is investigated when only the magnitude but not the phase of A(θ) is known.     

Bilge keel loads and hull pressures created by bilge keels fitted to a rotating cylinder

This paper presents bilge keel loads and hull pressure measurements carried out on a rotating cylinder in a free surface water basin. A flat plate bilge keel and one more complex shaped bilge keel were studied to investigate the geometry effect. The draft of the cylinder was varied to study the effect of the vicinity of the free surface on the bilge keel loads and hull pressures. The rotation axis of the cylinder was fixed to define a pure roll experiment (one degree of freedom).The cylinder was subject to forced oscillations of varying amplitude leading to a KC range of 0.3–16. Using Fourier analysis the first three harmonic coefficients representing the normal bilge keel load were derived. The first harmonic drag and inertia coefficients are in good agreement to existing experimental data obtained for wall bounded flat plates fitted in a U-shaped water tunnel as reported by Sarpkaya and O’Keefe (1996). New insight is gained by the fact that the addition of higher harmonic contributions is essential to capture the time varying bilge keel normal force.The pressure measurements next to the bilge keel are compared to measurements reported by Ikeda et al. (1979). Similar findings are obtained, showing that the pressure on the hull in front of the moving bilge keel is KC independent while the vortex system in the wake of the bilge keel leads to KC dependent hull pressure distributions. The hull pressure jump over the bilge keel correlates well to the force coefficient on the bilge keel. The complex nature of the vortex induced hull pressures is manifested. The empirically derived hull pressure distribution by Ikeda et al. (1979) for the time instant of maximum velocity is shown to correlate reasonably well to the measured data with some conservatism in the absolute value.Although a cylinder is very different from a ship-shaped section, the experiments provide essential insight into the physics associated with roll damping and into the factors that should be included in a roll damping prediction method.     

Neumann-Michell theory-based multi-objective optimization of hull form for a naval surface combatant

A numerical multi-objective optimization procedure is proposed here to describe the development and application of a practical hydrodynamic optimization tool, OPTShip-SJTU. Three components including hull form modification module, hydrodynamic performance evaluation module and optimization module consist of this tool. The free-form deformation (FFD) method and shifting method are utilized as parametric hull surface modification techniques to generate a series of realistic hull forms subjected to geometric constraints, and the Neumann-Michell (NM) theory is implemented to predict the wave drag. Moreover, NSGA-II, a muti-objective genetic algorithm, is adopted to produce pareto-optimal front, and kriging model is used for predicting the total resistance during the optimization process to reduce the computational cost. Additionally, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) method is introduced to represent the influence of each design variable on the objective functions. In present work, a surface combatant DTMB Model 5415 is used as the initial design, and optimal solutions with obvious drag reductions at specific speeds are obtained. Eventually, three of optimal hulls are analyzed by NM theory and a RANS-based CFD solver naoe-FOAM-SJTU respectively. Numerical results confirm the availability and reliability of this multi-objective optimization tool.     

Simulation of free surface flow around a VLCC hull using viscous and potential flow methods

Numerical simulations have been carried out to determine the incompressible free surface flow around a VLCC hull form for which experimental results are available. A commercial viscous flow finite volume code using the two-phase Eulerian–Eulerian fluid approach and a potential flow code based on the Rankine source method have been used in this study. The simulation conditions are the ones for which experimental results exist. The shear stress transport (SST) turbulence model has been used in the viscous flow code. A tetrahedral unstructured grid was used with the viscous flow code for meshing the computational domain, while quadrilateral structural patches were used with the potential flow code for meshing the VLCC hull surface and the water surface around it. The results compare well with the available experimental data and they allow an understanding of the differences that can be expected from viscous and potential flow methods as a result of their different mathematical formulations, which make their complementary application useful for determining the total ship resistance.     

Resonant heave motion of semisubmersible vessels

This paper is concerned with nonlinear resonant heave motion of a semisubmersible vessel at the survival draft. Due to the small potential of the hulls at deep draft the resonant motion is governed almost entirely by nonlinear drag forces on the hull and bracing members.Long period ocean swell following a storm can excite semisubmersiblesat resonance in heave and delay the resumption of drilling activities.The paper presents a simple closed form solution for determining the heave motion at the natural period which agrees well with other theoretical and experimental results.     

Hydrodynamic optimization of ship hull forms

An extremely simple CFD tool is used to compare the calm-water drags of a series of hull forms and to define ‘optimized’ monohull ships for which the total (friction+wave) calm-water drag is minimized. The friction drag is estimated using the classical ITTC formula. The wave drag is predicted using the zeroth-order slender-ship approximation. Comparisons of theoretical predictions and experimental measurements for a series of eight hull forms show that—despite the extreme simplicity of the method that is used here to estimate the friction drag and the wave drag—the method is able to rank the drags of a series of hull forms roughly in accordance with experimental measurements. Thus, the method may be used, with appropriate caution, as a practical hull form design and optimization tool. For purposes of illustration, optimized hull forms that have the same displacement and waterplane transverse moment of inertia as the classical Wigley hull, taken as initial hull in the optimization process, are determined for three speeds and for a speed range.     

Evaluation of cross curves of fishing vessels at the preliminary design stage

The prediction of ship stability during the early stages of the design process is very important from the point of a vessel's safety. Hence, in this study, a formula is presented to estimate cross curves of fishing vessels to predict initial stability at the preliminary design stage. For this purpose, 175 fishing vessel forms have been generated from Doust trawler hull series. The predictive technique is established by regression analysis of systematically varied fishing vessel series data. The mathematical model is constructed as a function of main design parameters such as length to beam ratio L_WL/B_WL, beam to draft ratio B_WL/T, moulded depth to draft ratio D/T and block coefficient C_B. This prediction is also used to determine the effect of specific hull form parameters and load conditions on the stability of the fishing vessel. Some basic considerations on how the proposed method can be applied to a new fishing vessel are presented.     

Research on Bulbous Bow Optimization Based on the Improved PSO Algorithm

In order to reduce the total resistance of a hull, an optimization framework for the bulbous bow optimization was presented. The total resistance in calm water was selected as the objective function, and the overset mesh technique was used for mesh generation. RANS method was used to calculate the total resistance of the hull. In order to improve the efficiency and smoothness of the geometric reconstruction, the arbitrary shape deformation (ASD) technique was introduced to change the shape of the bulbous bow. To improve the global search ability of the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, an improved particle swarm optimization (IPSO) algorithm was proposed to set up the optimization model. After a series of optimization analyses, the optimal hull form was found. It can be concluded that the simulation based design framework built in this paper is a promising method for bulbous bow optimization.     

压力公式的修正及其在波浪荷载计算中的应用

计入前进速度流动与非定常流动之间的干扰,修正了切片法中计算压力的公式,从而建立了计算波浪荷载的方法,开发了相应的计算机程序。计算实例同国内外有关资料的比较表明结果吻合良好,为船舶与海洋结构物结构有限元分析程序提供了有效的前处理模块     

Small waterplane area ship models: Re-analysis of test results based on scale effect and form drag

The first systematic model series of hulls with small waterplane area (both single hulls and twin-hulls) was designed and tested in Krylov Shipbuilding Research Institute in the middle of the 1980's. The series was intended to cover a broad range of Froude numbers, hull aspect ratios, design drafts, and spacing between hulls. In the present paper, these test results are re-analyzed by accounting for the scale effect in the form drag, obtained from the comparison with test data of larger out-of-series models. Illustrative results are also given for the influence of the cross-section hull shape, strut configuration, and shifted hulls on the residual resistance and for dynamic trim and draft. Some data are compared with those of the later series tests of twin-hull models with small waterplane area carried out in HSVA, Germany. Factors influencing the residual resistance of ships of this type are discussed.     

水下滑翔器主体外形优化设计

对水下滑翔器主体外形的优化设计问题进行研究.首先,在考虑内部机械结构限制的条件下,建立了主体外形优化数学模型,并采用CFX计算了若干主体形状的绕流阻力.在此基础上建立了映射主体外形的尺寸参数与绕流阻力的BP神经网络.然后将建立的神经网络作为优化设计问题的目标函数,采用坐标轮换法对滑翔器主体外形进行了优化设计,确定了尺寸参数的最优解.     

在AutoCAD平台上应用ActiveX技术进行船体曲面造型

论述了AutoCAD ActiveX Automation,并就应用Active技术进行二次开发AutoCAD的问题，讨论了如何引用对象和使用对象的方法和属性、使用文档对象的事件、用ADO（ActiveX Data Objects)开发基于数据库的应用程序等。通过应用ActiveX技术，在AutoCAD中构造了船体曲面。     

A new concept of a hull form to improve wave response characteristics for marine construction barges

The object of the new hull form is to provide a single hull which possesses long natural periods of roll and heave and has substantially reduced motion response amplitudes in very high sea states. Model tests and preliminary estimates indicated that the new hull form can be designed for roll and heave motions nearly equivalent to those of much larger semisubmersible units.All existing conventional marine construction barges have rectangular cross section hull. The new hull form consists of a system of upper side tanks and lower side tanks added onto a rectangular cross section hull. The upper tanks and lower tanks form longitudinal troughs on the port and starboard sides. Structural grillage of any open type is to connect the upper and lower tanks at the side of the vessel. Figure 1 indicates a profile and a typical transverse section of the new hull form. The new hull comprises the concept of reduced water plane area which is turn results in low transverse metacentric height and low tons per in. immersion. The novel features of combining low GM_T and low TPI with extremely heavy damping and added mass of the entrained water characteristics result in very long natural periods of roll and heave and considerably small rolling and heaving amplitudes in high sea states. The open side shell plating on the side of the vessel functions to dissipate wave energy at the side of the vessel which would have otherwise been transmitted to the vessel and caused the vessel to respond. This paper presents the conceptual foundation and outline of the new hull form. Model test results are presented and implemented. Also presented is the design philosophy.