Operational Matrix Framework for Energy Balance Analysis for Early Stage Design of Complex Vessels

Abstract

Considering vital ship systems or distributed ship service systems at the early stage of complex vessels is a challenging task. The recent UCL Network Block Approach aimed to enable ship designer to address ship systems design synthesis simultaneously as a logical network using MATLAB with a CPLEX Toolbox in MATLAB and representative piping, cabling, and trunking routings on the physical description of the ship using a proven CASD tool PARAMARINESURFCON. This was possible due to adopting a set of frameworks, as part of this comprehensive approach. The paper presents one of the frameworks: the Operational Matrix, to formulate distributed ship service systems network in the early stage design of complex vessels. The application of the framework could take on many forms and can be manipulated to suit a specific distributed ship service system’s design. In this paper, a tutorial is given, leading from the simplest application of the Operational Matrix Framework to an example of a complex Operational Matrix application for the 3D multiplex submarine systems problem. The use of the proposed Operational Matrix Framework is shown to reveal the relationship between objective functions, constraints, bounds, and solutions of that linear programming formulation. The Operational Matrix Framework can enable the solvers (CPLEX Toolbox in MATLAB) to be very efficient in advancing early stage ship design applications. The Framework could be developed further for investigating the analysis of energy balances for new systems to achieve net zero energy demands for future naval vessels.