A demonstration of an advanced library based approach to the initial design exploration of different hullform configurations

The importance of requirement elucidation, in shaping both the customers' needs and initial solutions during the concept stage of the ship design process, has previously been emphasised in the choice of initial design methods. It is well known that alternative hullform styles can bring distinct performance benefits in certain design investigations. However, current design methods or tools suitable for exploring alternate hullform styles during requirement elucidation do not readily facilitate this. This paper describes a library based ship concept design tool and its ability to include exploration of hullform options in the initial exploratory stage of the ship design process. The library based approach utilises sub-structuring to describe the design in terms of four functional subsets to increase the efficiency of the search process. The example presented looks at monohull, catamaran and trimaran hullform options for a fast naval combatant. The paper concludes with the advantages seen in adopting the tool in concert with a configuration-oriented approach to ship design, namely, the UCL Design Building Block approach. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

A Library Based Approach for Exploring Style in Preliminary Ship Design

The unique decision making environment that occurs in ship concept design prevents a full exploration of possible solution styles. However, alternative styles present distinct advantages in certain situations. This is particularly true for different hullform styles which can give significant performance benefits. To fully capitalise upon these alternatives, a comprehensive exploration should occur at the outset of the design process. Current ship design methods have been found to limit the designer’s ability to rapidly explore a large number of radically differing alternatives. This is a consequence of a common requirement for the early selection of design styles. Clearly, some approach able to support the designer in exploring alternative styles early in the design process would offer the designer significant advantages. This thesis begins with the identification of a gap in the design methods currently avail- able to the designer selecting hullform style early in the ship design process. It details a design approach aimed at closing this gap while targeting the early design stages of naval ships. A review of wider engineering design research has highlighted several promising models of design theory, knowledge and technology that could be usefully applied to this problem. Using these models a new Library Based approach has been proposed and developed. This Library Based approach employs decomposition and pre-calculation to create a library of sub-options that can be rapidly examined using a set of initial design requirements to develop a range of possible options. Comparison with a notional optimisation process suggests the proposed approach offers advantages for problems similar in characteristic to the selection of hullform style. The approach is then demonstrated through two example implementations which are applied to the initial design of several naval combatants including an existing design. The discussion on the proposed approach highlights its strengths and weaknesses compared to two lists of needs for ship concept design tools and also its potential to be employed in concert with other design methods, aiding the necessary decision-making that occurs early in the ship design process. The key conclusion of the research is that the gap in the selection of hullform style can be met through the application of the proposed Library Based approach. Finally, five areas of future research are recommended: exploring extensions of the approach presented able to extrapolate the contents of the library; extend the approach to provide insight into relationships and drivers; investigating alternative technologies for the library; applying parametric design tools to generate library data; and demonstrating links to other design methods

The Advanced Technology Corvette - Railgun (ATK-R) Design Study - Future Weapons and Small Ship Power Systems

High-power electric weapons, such as the ElectroMagnetic RailGun (EMRG), laser and High Power Microwave devices are moving closer to practical utilisation by navies, and prototype EMRG systems are being tested at militarily useful energy levels. Previous work in the UCL Department of Mechanical Engineering includes; preliminary design studies for surface combatants with an all electric weapons outfit; and detailed marine engineering analysis, to PhD level, of the implications for future power and propulsion systems of these weapons. Design studies for electrically armed ships have generally examined large destroyer-sized surface combatants, with significant installed electrical power. This paper describes a concept design study for a small corvette-sized combatant, ATK-R, developed as the “minimum sized ship” capable of supporting an EMRG as its primary armament This paper describes the UCL ZEOLIT design tool, the ship design impacts and marine engineering integration of this future concept including the use of Energy Storage Systems (ESS) and the choice between power limited (Patrol vessel -like) and power dense (Fast attack craft –like) power and propulsion systems

Preliminary design of conventional and unconventional surface ships using a building block approach

Current naval ship design programmes are considered to be inadequately served by the preliminary ship design methodologies used to develop initial design features. This is due to a reliance on numerical design approaches that do not fully reflect the complex nature of the naval ship design problem. A new ''Building Block" design methodology is demonstrated. This methodology uses design descriptions integrating functional, and architectural issues with numerical design descriptions as functional Building Blocks. The Building Block methodology allows designers to undertake decision making during preliminary design with knowledge of all important design issues. The thesis scope includes all commonly encountered naval surface ship requirements for monohulls and also for unconventional hullform types, such as Trimaran. Justification for a new design methodology is presented in Part one of the thesis. General engineering design and specific naval design issues are detailed, leading to a discussion of current design methodologies. Comparison of alternative ship design methodologies highlights the need for an integrated approach based on architecture. The requirement for an architecturally centred design methodology leads to the Building Block design methodology, detailed in Part two. Major surface ship methodology issues are detailed. The concept of the design generator is developed as being that requirement which defines the section of the overall ship design space in which a final design will reside. The discussion considers the application of the new methodology to monohull ships, focusing on an Escort Frigate requirement. The methodology is also applied to amphibious landing ships and small naval vessels, demonstrating the effects of size and operational requirements on applicability. The discussion also demonstrates the application to unconventional craft by development of Trimaran and SWATH designs, noting that the more complex unconventional design problems encountered, benefited from the Building Block methodologies' strengths

Design for Support in the Initial Design of Naval Combatants

The decline of defence budgets coupled with the escalation of warship procurement costs have significantly contributed to fleet downsizing in most major western navies despite little reduction in overall commitments, resulting in extra capability and reliability required per ship. Moreover, the tendency of governments to focus on short-term strategies and expenditure has meant that those aspects of naval ship design that may be difficult to quantify, such as supportability, are often treated as secondary issues and allocated insufficient attention in Early Stage Design. To tackle this, innovation in both the design process and the development of individual ship designs is necessary, especially at the crucial early design stages. Novelty can be achieved thanks to major developments in computer technology and in adopting an architecturally-orientated approach to early stage ship design. The existing technical solutions aimed at addressing supportability largely depend on highly detailed ship design information, thus fail to enable rational supportability assessments in the Concept Phase. This research therefore aimed at addressing the lack of a quantitative supportability evaluation approach applicable to early stage naval ship design. Utilising Decision Analysis, Effectiveness Analysis, and Analytic Hierarchy Process, the proposed approach tackled the difficulty of quantifying certain aspects of supportability in initial ship design and provided a framework to address the issue of inconsistent and often conflicting preferences of decision makers. Since the ship’s supportability is considered to be significantly affected by its configuration, the proposed approach utilised the advantages of an architecturally-orientated early stage ship design approach and a new concept design tool developed at University College London. The new tool was used to develop concept level designs of a frigate-sized combatant and a number of variations of it, namely configurational rearrangement with enhancement of certain supportably features, and an alternative ship design style. The design cases were then used to demonstrate the proposed evaluation approach. The overall aim of proposing a quantitative supportability evaluation approach applicable to concept naval ship design was achieved, although several issues and limitations emerged during both the development as well as the implementation of the approach. Through identification of the research limitations, areas for future work aimed at improving the proposal have been proposed

Applying Queueing Theory and Architecturally-Oriented Early Stage Ship Design to the Concept of a Vessel Deploying a Fleet of Uninhabited Vehicles

Uninhabited vehicles technology is becoming important in naval warfare, providing an entirely new capability. By projecting power through the deployment of such vehicles, the exposure of humans to military threats is reduced. Although the Royal Navy is pursuing the employment of uninhabited vehicles for a variety of applications, the concept of a substantial fleet of such vehicles, operated from a mothership, able to host and support their operations during a mission scenario, is still a novel design challenge. In the initial design stages, when little of design effort has been committed, ship design details will be far from fully defined and are still amenable to change without significant implications on the programme budget, or schedule. Consequently, there is a need to consider how more informed, early, but yet significant design decisions can be made regarding the design of a mothership deploying a fleet of uninhabited vehicles. Delivering a mothership’s operational capability through a complement of uninhabited vehicles would determine the ship’s configuration. The proposed approach, developed as part of this research, consists of decision-making and ship concept design tools, and provides a holistic means of integrating aspects of a fleet of uninhabited vehicles into early stage mothership design. The first tool uses queueing theory and has been employed to capture the impact of the required facilities to host and support a fleet of uninhabited vehicles carried in the ship’s mission bay and subsequently impact on the overall ship design, as well as providing a measure of the ship’s mission effectiveness. The second tool utilises the advantages of architecturally-oriented initial ship design approach to obtain balanced mothership designs and perform some early stage naval architecture analyses. The overall aim of proposing a quantitative approach to mothership performance has been demonstrated, showing the impact of operating a fleet of uninhabited vehicles, resulting in large costly vessels. Several limitations identified during the development and the implementation of the new approach have suggested areas for future work. It was concluded that the proposed approach would be appropriate to inform early investigation of the implications of operating a fleet of uninhabited vehicles from a new mothership configuration, since it allows a relatively fast exploration and comparison of different mothership design options against cost-capability criteria. However, it is suggested that while favourable design options could emerge through such comparative studies, these would merit from further investigations using simulation techniques that could refine the inputs to such novel ship concepts

A Model-Based Systems Engineering Methodology to Support Early Phase Australian Off-the-Shelf Naval Ship Acquisitions

A significant capability modernisation program and a wide-ranging review of Defence has meant that Australian naval ship acquisitions are now being undertaken with both increasing pace and increasing oversight. This comes at a time when naval ship acquisition has also swung away from the top-down approach of designing a ship to meet unique Australian requirements, to the strong preference to use off-the-shelf (OTS) ship designs from overseas. This situation creates a need for new approaches to support stakeholders with naval ship concept definition and acquisition methodologies (which include methods, tools, techniques, and processes) that can develop robust, defensible business cases for milestone decisions by government. This thesis addresses this important need through the construction of a structured Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) methodology that combines ship design aspects with technical and trade-off analyses to enable evidence-based decision making by Defence and government on the preferred technical solution to a capability need. The research utilised the Constructive Research Approach to produce an artefact, the Middle-out Early-phase Above-the-line Naval Ship (MEANS) MBSE methodology. The methodology is focused on the Risk Mitigation and Requirements Setting Phase (early conceptual design) in the Australian Defence capability lifecycle as this is the key stage in determining the outcome of an acquisition project. Specifically, the MEANS MBSE methodology supports requirements definition through a concept and requirements exploration approach. This approach facilitates the definition of traceable, defensible requirements based on top-down requirements analysis and design space exploration, combined with a bottom-up market survey of the existing naval ship design space. Furthermore, the MEANS MBSE methodology uses multi-criteria decision making to provide robust evaluation of candidate OTS naval ship design options to select the preferred solution and identify design weaknesses, or relative deficiencies in each design. The MEANS MBSE methodology encourages design to take place in the modelling environment (as opposed to simply recording the design) and supports iterative “what-if” solution option analysis to evaluate proposed design changes. The research produced a validated, exemplar MBSE methodology, and a body of work on early-stage ship design approaches that together have much to offer Australian Defence for future ship acquisitions. Specifically, it extended the use of MBSE to establish, manage and guide early stage design and analysis activities, whilst simultaneously maintaining traceability to Defence strategic guidance and capability needs. This extension allows capability development stakeholders to demonstrate the links between strategy, design activities, and requirements definition, thereby making ‘contestability’ and Systems Engineering rigour inherent in the specification of the required naval ship. The novelty of the research arises from the novel synthesis of several proven system design and analysis methods into a bespoke MBSE methodology that provides unique functionality and assistance to ship acquisition stakeholders. The thesis is presented in a combined conventional narrative and publications format, with the publications upon which the body of the thesis is based included in the appendices.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, Entrepreneurship, Commercialisation and Innovation Centre, 201

The integration of human factors, operability and personnel movement simulation into the preliminary design of ships utilising the Design Building Block approach

This thesis presents the feasibility, advantages and impact on Preliminary Ship Design of an approach to integrate ship configurational design with the modelling and simulation of a range of crewing issues, such as operations and evacuation. Integrating personnel movement simulation into preliminary ship design introduces the assessment of onboard operations at the front-end of the design process, informing the design and enabling improved operability while the design is still amenable to changes. The approach to accomplish this integration is discussed with the aim of informing all parties involved in the design of ships with regard to the main aspects of personnel operability and on board safety. The research was undertaken as part of a three years research project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) entitled “Guidance on the Design of Ships for Enhanced Escape and Operation”. The project aimed at bringing together the University of Greenwich developed “maritimeEXODUS” personnel movement simulation software and the SURFCON implementation in the PARAMARINE suite of the Design Building Block approach to Preliminary Ship Design, which originated with the UCL Ship Design Research team. The approach and procedural implications of integrating personnel movement simulation into the preliminary ship design process are presented through a series of SURFCON ship design case studies. With the UK Ministry of Defence as the industrial partner to the project, this study on “design for operation” concentrates on naval vessels, which provide excellent examples of complex environments. Design studies, based on the Royal Navy Type 22 Batch III Frigate design, were analysed using PARAMARINE, maritimeEXODUS and bespoke interface software produced by the candidate. Technical aspects of the development of the interface software are discussed from a procedural perspective, focusing on integration and usability issues. The discussion addresses alternative options to visualising the simulation results and how to integrate into a ship design model a minimum level of detail sufficient to conduct simulations able to inform the designer, while retaining the flexibility the design requires in early stages design. The thesis concludes by summarising the opportunities that integrating operational simulation into preliminary ship design opens up for the future practice of ship design, contributing to the debate on the nature of ship design and of Computer Aided Preliminary Ship Design

A methodology for topside design and integration in preliminary warship design.

This thesis investigates warship topside design and integration and proposes a methodology that provides, during the preliminary design stages, an enhanced topside design capability above that currently available. The feasibility of such a system is demonstrated through a number of individual investigations and ship design studies for both conventional and unconventional naval vessels. A recommended implementation of the methodology, integrating it with the recently produced layout system, is proposed as the way forward. Topside design is a complex task resulting from the requirement to locate all the necessary equipment on the weatherdeck and superstructure of a warship whilst minimising interactions. The current tools and design methodologies fail to cohesively address design issues at the concept stage. This is often due to the specialist nature of the analyses, which require detailed definitions only available later in the design process as well as expert knowledge in the application of the techniques. The proposed methodology provides guidance as different design solutions are developed and evaluated, allowing earlier identification of potential problems. It operates in an 'open' manner providing the naval architect with the flexibility to investigate and analyse the design as it evolves without dictating design decisions or requiring expert application knowledge. The major issues that need to be considered during preliminary warship design are discussed. Current design methods and the shortfalls associated with each of them are considered. A methodology is outlined detailing the principles that are applicable and the important components and characteristics of any solution identified. The major aspects in topside integration are investigated and design tools proposed and evaluated. A framework for the integration of these tools is developed which is suitable for implementation using current computer technology. The suitability of this framework to incorporate other less complex but important topside design issues is evaluated and appropriate techniques identified