Surrogate-Based Multi-Objective Optimisation for Powering and Seakeeping

Optimal operation during a ship’s life cycle requires a balance of economy and operability. For most vessel types, economy is related to fuel con-sumption and therefore to powering, whereas operability is related to seakeeping behavior. This defines a major goal in the early stage of ship design: a well-chosen balance of good powering and seakeeping behavior. However, in current design practice powering comes first, leaving little room for improve-ment of the seakeeping behavior. A simultaneous assessment of powering and seakeeping is required to find a well-balanced ship at the end of the multi-disciplinary design process.
In this paper we present a surrogate-based method for multi-objective hull form optimisation for calm water resistance and seakeeping. MARIN’s advanced tools for the calculation of calm water resistance and seakeeping behavior are used to assess the hydrodynamic objectives. The method is demonstrated for a naval ship. The validity of the method is checked by verification of the Pareto-optimal hull forms. The results show that significant improvements over the original hull form can be made while respecting other design constraints.