AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE INFLUENCE OF PREFERENCE MODELLING IN SHIP DESIGN WITH MULTIPLE OBJECTIVES

It is fairly widely recognised today that most large-scale design synthesis problems are multiple objective decision making problems, and ship design is no exception to this general rule. Under such circumstances the chosen design depends on how potentially conflicting requirements and performance criteria can be reconciled. As the scheme for reconciliation is a priority or preference ordering mechanism, it is intuitively clear that in ship design there is an intimate relationship between the preference structure of the designer and his perception of the relative attractiveness of different designs. An investigation of this relationship in the design of bulk carriers is explored in this paper to arrive at an appreciation of the type of insights that can be gained. The approach is easily capable of being generalised into other design domains.