Hydrodynamics in pre-contract ship design

Bringing out the role of hydromechanics in the ship designing process some complex procedure regarding both seakeeping and resistance tools for developing the ship hull form is introduced. In particular, an essence of the algorithm of the OPTIMALSHIP computer program intended to the container vessel pre-contract design stage is presented. This program generates a ranking of the number of ship hull variants for specified voyage route and for required value of the vessel transportation capability. Thus, the program is a typical CAD tool which will never replace the ship designers but it should support them in designing better ships more efficiently. The work reported here has been performed by the team of Hydrodynamic Division TUGdansk within the research project sponsored by State Committee for Scientific Research - Ministry of Polish Government.