Parametric Structural Analysis for a Platform Supply Vessel at Preliminary Design Phase - A Sensitivity Study via Design of Experiments.

Abstract

Parametric structural design analysis is a promising alternative to diminish the hull's structural mass, resulting in a vessel with higher payload capacity as well as lower construction and maintenance costs. The challenge of investigating a large space of alternatives, e.g. testing topology and materials, is caused by the high amount of engineering time required to model, analyse and evaluate each of the possible configurations. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the application of a structural sensitivity study for a parametrically model global structure of a platform supply vessel, focused on mass reduction during the preliminary design phase. The methodology starts with the CAD/FEM creation of a parametric model, representing the vessel's middle sectional region. The focus on early design stages allows for simplifications in the structural model, gaining computational time when bypassing local details that would require finer mesh, which is not desirable for any kind of fast analyses procedures. Strength analyses are performed, following procedure of design of experiments methodology, which serves as a tool to understand mass efficiency based on the initially defined variables. The method gathers knowledge on impact of variables on various combined responses, and these are used to map the most efficient parameters and determine a viable solution space that better material usage in comparison to the original design.

Keywords: Parametric Model; Structural Sensitivity Analysis; Response Surface Methodology.