Systematic probabilistic design methodology for simultaneously optimizing the ship hull–propeller system

Abstract

The proposed design methodology represents a new approach to optimize the propeller–hull system simultaneously. In this paper, two objective functions are considered, the first objective function is Lifetime Fuel Consumption (LFC) and the other one is cost function including thrust, torque, open water and skew efficiencies. The variables of the propeller geometries (Z, EAR, P/D and D) and ship hull parameters (L/B, B/T, T and CB) are considered to be optimized with cavitation, blades stress of propeller. The well-known evolutionary algorithm based on NSGA-II is employed to optimize a multi-objective problem, where the main propeller and hull dimensions are considered as design variables. The results are presented for a series 60 ship with B-series propeller. The results showed that the proposed method is an appropriate and effective approach for simultaneously propeller–hull system design and is able to minimize both of the objective functions significantly.

Keywords

• Multi-objective optimization (MOP)
• Hull–propeller system
• Minimizing LFC