Multidisciplinary Optimization of Naval Ship Design and Mission Effectiveness

This proposal presents the background and work necessary to adapt methodologies for the design of complex systems developed at the Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory (ASDL) at Georgia Tech under the sponsorship of the Office of Naval Research and GlobalTechnology Connection(GTC)/Georgia Tech SBIR , in support of their Affordability Measurement and Prediction methods initiative, to the areas of naval architecture and marine engineering. The work proposed will demonstrate how ADSL's design methodologiescan be implemented into an integrated architectural framework that uses physics-based analyses of appropriate fidelity to create design alternatives. The resulting environment provides the capability for exploring the multidimensional design spaces,evaluating new technologies and creating robust design solutions, while considering the myriad uncertainties inherent in the design of complex ship systems. The proposed architecture couples sizing and synthesis tools with mission analysis tools to assesshow trade-offs between design factors, requirements and technology insertion will affect mission effectiveness. The resulting environment presents the design information in a manner that facilitates a better visualization of the design space and allowsthe designer to readily explore multiple design alternatives and mission scenarios. This proposal introduces the design methodologies and proposes a work plan for integrating them into a comprehensive architecture for the conceptual design of ships.Communication and working relationship with a major USN shipbuilder will also be established during phase I.In Phase II, optimized initial version of ship design methodology will be implemented to demonstrate the framework capability to support two ship designs with disparate missions. This prototype demonstration and validation will be accomplished using futureship concept designs in collaboration with NSWC-CD.Collaborative teaming arrangements with shipyards will be accomplished in Phase III transition to commercialization. This technology will result in optimizing new technology applications in naval ships. They will be equally applicable to shipyards under contract to DoD and those producing commercial ships.