Title: Optimal ballast scheme design for cargo ships using an improved genetic algorithm

Authors: Jing Chen, Yan Lin, Jun Zhou Huo, Ming Xia Zhang, Zhuo Shang Ji

Addresses: State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, P.R. China. ' State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, P.R. China. ' School of Mechanical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, P.R. China. ' State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, P.R. China. ' State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, P.R. China

Abstract: Loading design is a key stage in ships| design process, and directly affects ships| stability, strength, and attitude at sea. The problem of loading design is a multi-objective combinatorial optimisation problem with multiple nonlinear constraints. In this paper, based on the complex technical requirements of ships| loading design, a mathematical model was constructed, taking the overall longitudinal strength and the intact stability performances as objectives, and the limits of ship|s attitude, stability and strength, etc. as constraints. A strategy of tanks being fully-loaded-first was adopted and the corresponding improved genetic algorithm was presented where a novel heuristic dynamic adjusting rule was proposed to dynamically adjust the normalising coefficients of the non-commensurable objectives. Finally, a real case study on the loading design of a 50,000 DWT double hull product tanker was conducted to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Keywords: ship design; ship loading; loading design; innovative computing; multi-objective optimisation; combinational optimisation; genetic algorithms; GAs; longitudinal strength; stability; ballast design; cargo ships; mathematical modelling; dynamic adjustment; tanker loading; double hull tankers.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICA.2009.031783

International Journal of Innovative Computing and Applications, 2009 Vol.2 No.2, pp.133 - 139

Received: 31 Mar 2009
Accepted: 15 Oct 2009
Published online: 24 Feb 2010 *

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