Multidisciplinary Optimization of Naval Ship Design and Mission Effectiveness

The iterative nature of ship design and the conflicting requirements of multiple disciplines present a challenge to find the best combination of design parameters to balance mission effectiveness with cost and risk. An engineering framework is proposed,integrating ship synthesis and design analysis tools, and employing multidisciplinary optimization and probabilistic design methods for modeling and simulation of design concepts. The underlying object-oriented architecture supports distributed computing,dependency tracking, demand-driven computation and parametric modeling. The framework supports a visual environment enabling the users to integrate the relevant software tools and to define the variables, constraints, and objectives for trade studies,optimization, and design exploration.A prototype version of the framework will be developed and exercised in the assessment of ship design concepts in collaboration with a partner university and a ship design center. Ultimately, the system significantly enhances the overall engineeringprocess of evaluating potential design concepts for optimization and trade studies. The development of the proposed architecture will result in a visual and modular engineering framework that will provide maximum interoperability among application software used in various disciplines and permit design exploration and optimization.The successful development of this framework will reduce ship design development time and cost, enabling quick response to fast-paced advancements in new ship systems and technologies. The U.S. Navy will benefit from the framework through the selection ofthe best alternatives to attain the mission objectives in future naval programs by design exploration. The shipyards can rapidly develop new designs from concept to the validation stages as the framework capitalizes on the legacy tools currently used inthe industry, while adopting new methods for design optimization.After a successful Phase II project, TechnoSoft will produce a software product based on the proposed framework, and market it as a part of its product offerings. Together with its current customers and partnering shipyards, TechnoSoft will deploy thesoftware in shipbuilding industry. The payoff for the US Navy and shipyards will be substantial from the rapid-to-market design development and reduced engineering cost.