Optimization of Ship-Compartments Arrangement on the Basis of the New Damage Stability Criteria

Abstract

Design of the ship-compartments arrangement in the initial design stage of a ship is one of the most important and troublesome steps to determine the loading capacity and the safety level of the ship. Since the ship's damage stability is strongly related to the safety level of the ship, the maximization of her survivability is a primary recommendation for the designer, especially in view of recent changes of the damage stability regulations towards more stringent requirement. Moreover, the optimum design which is satisfied with both sides of the loading capacity and the ship building cost guaranteeing the adequate safety is requested the designer by the ship owner.In the present study, a multi-objective optimization method of ship-compartments arrangement by using genetic algorithm is developed for the purpose of the reduction of the designer's load and the increase of the design efficiency. The objectives of this optimization problem are herein the maximization of the Attained Subdivision Index as a safety level and the maximization of the total lanes lengths. The effectiveness of the proposed method for optimizing ship-compartments arrangement is demonstrated through applying this methodology to a practical design of ship-compartments arrangements.