An Integrated Approach for Simulation in the Early Ship Design of a Tanker

An integrated approach is presented that combines the simulation of key measures of merit in the early phase of ship design. The approach was applied to an Aframax tanker for which payload, steel weight, strength, oil outflow, stability and hydrodynamics were considered simultaneously. Required freight rates, Energy Efficiency Design Index and maximum speed for given engine output were determined so as to rank design variants. Formal exploration and exploitation strategies were utilized to investigate the design space and, subsequently, advance competing design proposals into certain directions such as maximum energy efficiency, attainable speed and environmental protection in case of accidents. The paper focuses on integration and optimization, utilizing the tanker as an elaborated design example to illustrate the holistic view.