Abstract
Pipe route design plays a prominent role in ship design. Due to the complex configuration in layout space with numerous pipelines, diverse design constraints, and obstacles, it is a complicated and time-consuming process to obtain the optimal route of ship pipes. In this article, an optimized design method for branch pipe routing is proposed to improve design efficiency and to reduce human errors. By simplifying equipment and ship hull models and dividing workspace into three-dimensional grid cells, the mathematic model of layout space is constructed. Based on the proposed concept of pipe grading method, the optimization model of pipe routing is established. Then an optimization procedure is presented to deal with pipe route planning problem by combining maze algorithm (MA), nondominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II), and cooperative coevolutionary nondominated sorting genetic algorithm II (CCNSGA-II). To improve the performance in genetic algorithm procedure, a fixed-length encoding method is presented based on improved maze algorithm and adaptive region strategy. Fuzzy set theory is employed to extract the best compromise pipeline from Pareto optimal solutions. Simulation test of branch pipe and design optimization of a fuel piping system were carried out to illustrate the design optimization procedure in detail and to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed methodology.
Highlights
Since the 1970s, pipe routing design has been studied in various industrial fields, like aeroengine, large-scale integrated circuit, ship, and so forth
The Pareto optimal set is obtained after optimizing the initial population by using nondominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) algorithm, and fuzzy set theory is used to select the best compromise solution of current subpipe, which will be referred during the optimization procedure of other subpipes
In order to improve design efficiency and to reduce human errors, an optimized design method for branch pipe routing is proposed in this paper
Summary
Since the 1970s, pipe routing design has been studied in various industrial fields, like aeroengine, large-scale integrated circuit, ship, and so forth. In 1961, Lee [3] proposed maze algorithm to solve connecting problem of two points. Genetic algorithm is used by Ito [10] to optimize pipe routing in two-dimensional space, in which the chromosome of route path with variable-length is firstly defined. A variable-length encoding technique is proposed by Fan et al [13] and applied to optimize the ship pipe paths in three-dimensional space, which leads to the complexity of algorithm design process. The optimization algorithm research on pipe route planning mainly concentrates on the case with two Mathematical Problems in Engineering terminals, while multibranch pipe design is rarely studied. Using maze algorithm and Steiner tree theory, Fan et al [7] conduct the research on pipe routing problem of aeroengine.
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