Objective:
This project will enhance ship structural design for increased steelwork throughput, integrate and automate U.S. Navy Structural Design Criteria, and advance structural modeling and rigorous structural design space exploration to ensure adequate-structural integrity performance over the ship’s lift cycle, maximizing ship availability and reducing TOC.
Summary:
This project will implement into integrated design and production process software tools the accomplishments of NSRP RA Project TO 2022-328-001 and deliver:
- A new generation of multi-objective ship structural design optimization tools coupled with a unique set of process-oriented work-content tools for use during Preliminary and Contract Design to minimize work content and thus increase steelwork throughput.
- Tools that enable the Navy and shipbuilder collaborative ship design team to explore the structural design space in early-stage design to evaluate trade-offs among candidate designs and design configurations, including demonstration of integrated hydrodynamic loading analyses with 3D structural finite element analysis.
- Optimized structural designs that improve structural performance and reduce prevalent life-cycle problems such as service-life corrosion, heavy weather damage, and structural fatigue cracking while mitigating excessive structural repair and maintenance costs and increasing ship availability.
- Comprehensive integrated structural design space exploration capability to streamline U.S. Navy and shipbuilder ship design and manufacturing processes resulting in robust structures with reduced Total Ownership Costs (TOC) of ships for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard.
Key Deliverables / Benefits:
The main deliverables for this project are presenting the results through a Final Report that will be made available along with presentations being done at conferences and Panel Meetings throughout the span of the project.
This project will help lower material cost savings on the steel procurement by at least 5% while also lowering construction savings in total steel fabrication and assembly costs by 12-28%.
Overview
Project Team:
- MAESTRO Marine LLC
- Fincantieri Marinette Marine
- Altair Engineering Inc
- American Bureau of Shipping
- U.S. Coast Guard – Surface Forces Logistics Center
- Robert Keane – Ship Design USA Inc
- P. Jaquith & Associates
- SPAR Associates Inc.
April 2024 – March 2026
NSRP ASE Investment: $1M
INDUSTRY INVESTMENT: $1.3M
