Hull form design optimisation for improved efficiency and hydrodynamic performance of 'ship-shaped' offshore vessels

'Eco-friendly shipping' and fuel efficiency are important issues and challenges faced by marine and offshore industry today. This is primary due to increasing stringent environmental regulations and the pressure to reduce fuel cost to stay competitive. Furthermore, the technical requirements of offshore vessels have also increased significantly. Recent developments in advance optimisation techniques and High Performance Computing (HPC) are key enablers for Simulation Based Design (SBD) in ship and offshore applications, where overall efficiency of design process and hydrodynamic performance can be greatly improved. This paper integrates a geometry modification technique with advance optimisation and evaluation algorithms, with the aim to improve the overall efficiency and hydrodynamic performance of 'ship-shaped' offshore vessels. By incorporating concepts from Free-Form Deformation (FFD) and Genetic Algorithm (GA), the proposed approach is applied to optimise the hull form design of a heavy-lift and pipe-lay vessel to reduce the overall resistance while improving its sea-keeping performance.