Current State of Development of Ship Structural Design and Optimization Methods

This paper presents state-of-the-art methodologies and methods used in the rationally-based structural design of ships and offshore structures, namely design support system, structural optimization, surrogate modelling and sensitivity analysis. It demonstrates their application in structural design of a platform support vessel. It ends with a list of benefits that a structural designer may expect when the presented methods/methodologies are used. It also shows the obstacles to their full implementation in the engineering practice.