A multi-objective cooperative particle swarm optimization based on hybrid dimensions for ship pipe route design

Abstract

Pipe route design has an important influence on ship performance. The main objective is to generate pipe routes satisfying complicated constraints in 3D space. The design process includes two parts: mathematical modeling and automatic optimization algorithm, where facility simplifying is an essential part of the mathematical modeling. However, previous studies mainly focused on pipe layout algorithms based on single objective optimization, and facility simplifying need to rely on artificial assistance. Nowadays, the optimization algorithm which can give several feasible solutions for designers, and the implementation of automatic pipe route design receive much attention. Therefore, this paper presents a multi-objective cooperative particle swarm optimization based on hybrid dimensions (HDMCPSO) for ship pipe route design (SPRD), which adopts multi-particle dimensions strategy and cooperative update mechanism via representative of each subswarm based on multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO). The framework can solve the two separate NP-hard problems of facility simplifying and pipe layout compatibly, and obtain high-quality Pareto solutions. To fully evaluate the effectiveness of HDMCPSO, the pipe length, bend number and assembly are optimized as the objectives, and a real piping system of ship engine room is used to compare different methods reported in the literature. The results show that HDMCPSO has generality which can simplify different facilities models and obtain better engineering pipe layout solutions.