Holistic ship design optimization: merchant and naval ships

The present paper provides a brief introduction to a holistic approach to ship design optimization, defines the generic ship design optimization problem, and demonstrates its solution by using advanced optimization techniques for the computer-aided generation, exploration, and selection of optimal designs. It discusses proposed methods on the basis of some typical ship design optimization problems of cargo and naval ships related to multiple objectives, leading to improved and partly innovative design features with respect to ships’ economy, cargo carrying capacity, safety, survivability, comfort, required powering, environmental protection, or combat strength, as applicable.