A Modified Design Framework Based on Markov Decision Process for Operational Evaluation

Abstract

It is well known that operational evaluation is an indispensable component of the ship design process. This paper outlines the development of an extension to the previously developed Ship-Centric Markov Decision Process (SC-MDP) framework to include the identification, evaluation and impact of seakeeping performance on operating vessels within early stage design. The results from previous SC-MDP development efforts at the University of Michigan validate the success and applicability of this framework towards furthering the evaluation of ship temporal operational events in early stage design. As an extension, the SC-MDP framework modification presented in this paper will provide a mechanism for the evaluation of the performance of a vessel operating across the ocean through the consideration of physical response, which is limited when using traditional seakeeping and Computational Fluid Dynamics methods. Traditional seakeeping analysis in the frequency domain analyzes the physical response of the vessel from a static perspective, though this perspective lacks the ability to evaluate the vessel in terms of its temporal behaviors. Additionally, the analysis in the time domain is limited by short time frames and high computational expenses. Therefore, the opportunity to incorporate the implications of the vessel’s physical response from a temporal perspective can provide great value if the constraints present in early stage design are mitigated. The formulation presented in this paper extends the SC-MDP framework to include the seakeeping performance of a vessel in early stage design context.