Abstract

The fluctuation of fuel price levels, along with the continuous endeavour of the shipping industry for economic growth and profits has led the shipbuilding industry to explore new designs for various types of merchant ships. Moreover, the introduction of new regulations by the IMO has added further constraints to the ship design process. In this respect, proper use of modern CAD/CAE systems extends the design space, while generating competitive designs in short lead time. This study deals with the parametric design and holistic optimisation of a post-panamax containership. The methodology includes a complete parametric model of a containership’s external and internal geometry, as well as the development and coding of all tools required for the determination of both the design constraints and the efficiency indicators, which are used for evaluating the parametrically generated designs. The second-generation intact stability criteria are taken into consideration in the optimisation process. The set-up multi-objective optimisation problem is solved by use of the genetic algorithms and clear Pareto fronts are generated. Document type: Conference object

Abstract

The increasing demand for energy efficient electric cars, in the automotive sector, entails the need for improvement of their structures, especially the chassis, because of its multifaceted role on the vehicle dynamic behaviour. The major criteria for the development of electric car chassis are the stiffness and strength enhancement subject to mass reduction as well as cost and time elimination. Towards this direction, this work indicates an integrated methodology of developing an electric car chassis considering the modeling and simulation concurrently. The chassis has been designed in compliance with the regulations of Shell Eco Marathon competition. This methodology is implemented both by the use of our chassis load calculator (CLC) model, which automatically calculates the total loads applied on the vehicle&rsquo s chassis and by the determination of a worst case stress scenario. Under this extreme stress scenario, the model&rsquo s output was evaluated for the chassis design and the FEA method was performed by the pre-processor ANSA and the solver Ansys. This method could be characterized as an accurate ultrafast and cost-efficient method. Document type: Article