Adapting to Changes in Design Requirements Using Set-Based Design

Abstract

Ship design is a highly intensive and complex process mainly due to the large number of components and competing requirements. With advancement in technology, design, and evaluation processes, more emphasis has been placed on obtaining not just a feasible design, but also an optimal one. Advanced design methods such as set-based design (SBD) can provide a structured approach to evaluating the design space in order to make accurate and informed decisions toward a more globally optimal design. This paper presents the general application of the SBD process for US Naval vessels as well as a specialized focus on changes in design requirements. Specifically, the two main objectives are an evaluation of how delaying decisions using SBD could cause higher adaptability to changes later in the design process and development of a tradeoff space for evaluating reduced sets. A design experiment that simulated cycles of the SBD process was developed and implemented to provide insight into this objective. The different stages of the experiment included determining intersections between design components in the design space, narrowing variable sets to eliminate infeasible regions, and evaluating the effects of changing design requirements.