FULL AND SEMI AUTOMATED EARLY-STAGE SHIP LAYOUT GENERATION

Abstract

The generation of cost-effective ship design solutions to sets of requirements demands a thorough examination of a wide trade space of potential solutions in order to ensure that the ultimately selected solution is the best that can be achieved within an affordable budget. As more options are explored in shorter times then inevitably the degree of detail that can be developed for each solution will decrease, potentially leaving risk that later development will increase the anticipated cost. Early-stage concept design tools are therefore evolving to provide more detail and faster analysis. The importance of ship layout in earlystage ship sizing has long been recognised and methods are required to generate confidence as quickly as possible, and that a practical compartment arrangement can be achieved on any given concept. The paper outlines the general approaches used, and presents example outputs, from a tool developed to make use of genetic algorithms and techniques already proven on existing system generation and analysis toolsets used by BAE Systems Naval Ships. The toolset adopts a staged approach involving a completely flexible mix of automated and manual operations to firstly allocate compartments to zones within a ship and secondly arrange the compartments within those zones. The tool supports the capture and utilisation of knowledge from experienced designers and enables a rapid generation of preliminary ship layout options, within an integrated concept trade space exploration process.