A practical approach to constrained hydrodynamic optimization of ships

This paper presents a practical approach to hydrodynamic optimization of ships, based on numerical flow simulation. New in this approach, compared to previous practice, is first a convenient tool for defining a parameter-based variation of a given hull geometry and second some new facilities for fast computation of the flow around all variants and qualification of the results in relation to the optimization function and the constraints. An important feature of the geometry handling is the parameterisation of the hull form modification instead of the hull form itself. The approach is called semi-automatic because the role of the designer is essential in choosing the hull form variations and controlling the optimization process. Examples of application are given, centered around the use of a non-linear free surface potential flow code. These examples prove the method to be flexible and efficient.