A Study on Minimum Weight Design of Horizontal Corrugated Bulkheads for Chemical Tankers

Corrugated bulkheads have many advantages compared to stiffened bulkheads, and they have thus been used for the cargo tank bulkheads of commercial vessels, such as bulk carriers, product oil carriers, and chemical tankers. Various studies have been carried out to find the optimum corrugation shape for bulk carriers, but optimum design studies for chemical tankers with bulkheads made of high-priced materials are scarce. The purpose of this study is to develop a minimum weight design method for horizontal corrugated bulkheads for a chemical tanker. An evolution strategy (ES) that searches for a reliable global optimum point was applied as an optimization technique, and the structural safety of the optimum design was verified through structural analysis using the finite element method (FEM). The results were compared with those of an existing ship, which showed a weight reduction of about 14% with equivalent structural strength.