Traditionally, ship design may be considered decomposed into four
main phases, namely: a. Concept design—Feasibility study b.
Preliminary design c. Contract design d. Detailed design
Preliminary ship design is the early stage of design in which based
on the shipowner’s or mission requirements and specifications, the
main technical and economic ship characteristics are determined by
optimization, particularly those ship characteristics that decisively
affect the cost of shipbuilding (and indirectly the cost of acquisition)
and the economy of operation.
Objectives of Preliminary Design The preliminary ship design
encompasses the following more detailed objectives: • Selection of
main ship dimensions • Development of the ship’s hull form (wetted
and above-water parts) • Specification of main machinery and
propulsion system type and size (powering) • Estimation of auxiliary
machinery type and powering • Design of general arrangement of
main and auxiliary spaces (cargo spaces, machinery spaces and
accommodation) • Specification of cargo-handling equipment •
Design of main structural elements for longitudinal and transverse
strength • Control of floatability, stability, trim and freeboard (stability
and load line regulations) • Tonnage measurement (gross register
tons)
The Design Spiral
The design spiral is one of the most important pieces of the
technical know-how of a Naval Architect and/or Ocean Engineer. So
what exactly is the Design Spiral and why is it so important for a
typical ship designer in the marine industry or any personnel
concerned with the design development of a marine structure?
SHIP DESIGN SPIRAL
Designing a ship is perhaps the most rigorous of all engineering
problems. It takes a lot of technical expertise, often across many
disciplines to design such structures.A ship not only floats on the
surface of the ocean but also makes its way around the world, along
different routes through rough weather - "in one piece". The Design
Spiral is a systematic approach to achieving near perfect designs for
a given ship design problem. A naval architect traces his way along
the design spiral through the different stages of design given below:
1.CONCEPT DESIGN
2.PRELIMINARY DESIGN
3.CONTRACT DESIGN
4.DETAILED DESIGN
As we move along the spiral into its core, we move from a zone of
less information to extremely specific instruction for the construction
of ship or in other words- "Realization of the design into a product".
Given below are the definitions of each stage of design spiral along
with the typical effort/man days required for a large merchant ship.
Concept design - 20 man days
This stage witnesses the translation of the mission requirements into
naval architectural and engineering characteristics.The fundamental
elements of the ship such as length, beam, depth, draft, fullness,
power, or alternative sets of characteristics, all of which meet the
required speed, range,cargo cubic, and deadweight are used
to perform feasibility studies.
Light-ship weight estimation is done.
Alternative designs are analyzed during this phase to determine the
most economical design solution.
Preliminary design - 300 man days
This stage essentially improves and elaborates the major ship
characteristics affecting cost and performance. The factors such as
length ,beam, horsepower deadweight, would not be expected to
change after the completion of this stage. It also provides basis for
the development of contract plans and specifications.
Contract design - 5000 man days
This stage describes more precisely features such as hull form
based on a faired set of lines, powering based on model testing,
seakeeping and maneuvering characteristics, the effect of number
of propellers on hull form, structural details, use of different types of
steel, spacing and type of frames . Paramount, among the contract
design features, is a weight and center of gravityestimate taking into
account the location and weight of each major item in the ship. The
final general arrangement is also developed during this stage. This
fixes the overall volumes and areas of cargo, machinery, stores, fuel
oil, fresh water, living and utility spaces and their interrelationship,as
well as their relationship to other features such as cargo handling
equipment, and machinery components.
Check on Quality standards of hull and outfit and the anticipated
performance for each item of machinery and equipment is done.
Also describe the tests and trials required.
Detailed design - 60000 man days
Comprises of detailed working plans .These plans are the
installation and construction instructions to the ship fitters, welders,
outfitters, metal workers, machinery vendors, pipe-fitters, etc. At this
stage the interchange is from engineer to artisan, that is, the
engineer's product at this point is no longer to be interpreted,
adjusted, or corrected by any other engineer.
Governing Equation
1. To determine the percentage of difference between the total
weight with the displacement, this equation for the displacement
were use
∆= 𝐿 ∙ 𝐵 ∙ 𝑇 ∙ 𝐶𝐵 ∙ 𝜌 ∙ (1 + 𝑠)
Where the displacement is equal to the total weight of the ship:
∆= 𝑊
With
𝑊 = 𝑊𝑙𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝 + 𝑊𝐷𝑊𝑇
In order to find the Length Overall for the ship or LOA, a regression
from the book of Ship Design: Preliminary Methodologies Design
(Papanikolaou, 2014, p. 483) with equation of
𝐷𝑊𝑇 = 369.82𝑒 0.0258(𝐿𝑂𝐴)
were use with the DWT of 40000 tones. Then, value for B also come
from the same book (Papanikolaou, 2014, p. 483)
𝐷𝑊𝑇 = 1.3908 ∙ 𝐵3.0094
For the value of Draught, T also taken from same book
(Papanikolaou, 2014, p. 484)
𝐷𝑊𝑇 = 15.804 ∙ 𝑇 3.1525
In calculating the value of 𝐶𝐵 , with the value of Froude number is
within 0.14 and 0.32 and for the chemical tanker with DWT of 40000
the value for Froude number is 0.1806 (Papanikolaou, 2014, p. 485)
the equation are (Papanikolaou, 2014, p. 151):

𝐿
0.14 𝐵 + 20
𝐶𝐵 = ∙
𝐹𝑛 26

W lightship 1=Wst+Wot+Wmm+Wmrest

After calculating all the value used to determine the displacement of

the ship, the calculation process proceed with next process, which is
calculating the value of the lightship weight to compare to the
displacement of the ship. The equation used to calculate the weight
of steel are (Papanikolaou, 2014, p. 211):

0.004𝐿 𝐿
𝑊𝑆𝑇 = ∆(𝛼𝐿 + 𝛼𝑇 (1.009 − ) ∙ 0.06 ∙ (28.7 − ))
𝐵 𝐷

𝛼𝑇 = 0.0290 + 0.00235 ∙ ∆ ∙ 10−5

For the weight of outfitting machine (Papanikolaou, 2014, p. 220):

𝑊𝑂𝑇 = 0.28 ∙ 𝐿 ∙ 𝐵

Weight of machinery (Papanikolaou, 2014, p. 234):

𝑀𝐶𝑅
𝑊𝑀𝑀 = 12( )
𝑅𝑃𝑀

While for the value of rest machinery (Papanikolaou, 2014, p. 234):

𝑊𝑀𝑅𝐸𝑆𝑇 = 𝐶𝑚 (𝑀𝐶𝑅)0.70

Finally yet importantly, the value for the margin for weight also
calculated using (Papanikolaou, 2014, p. 176):

𝑅 = 2% ∙ 𝑊𝑙𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝

W lightship=R+Wlightship 1

The difference between displacement of these dimension with total

weight calculated:

Total weight, 𝑊 = 𝑊𝑙𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝 + 𝑊𝐷𝑊𝑇

𝐷𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 = 𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 − 𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑤𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡

Percentage difference=(Displacement-Total weight/Displacement)*100%