A NEW APPROACH TO AN INTEGRATED CAD METHOD FOR SURFACE SHIP DESIGN

The objective of this paper is to introduce a new design approach of a n integrated CAD method for surface ship design. This new approach is called the Concurrent Integrated CAD (CICAD) System. Instead of follow ing the traditional spiral approach, the proposed work establishes a c oncurrent computer-aided design procedure. As the design process proce eds, all analyses would be carried out concurrently on the progressing design, to provide an overview of its performance. The paper starts w ith a brief discussion about the challenges encountered by the present shipbuilding industry. This is to identify the needs of this industry in the foreseeable future. The authors point out the problems of the ship design process, and investigate the impacts and trends of applyin g CAD methods, in order to justify the new approach. Other innovations of the ship design process, like Simulation Based Design (SBD), Decis ion-based Design (DBD), etc. are also discussed. The paper illustrates the conceptual and function models of CICAD. It demonstrates how the new approach is being developed, with yacht design as an example; and it estimates the significance of this concurrent approach. Further wor k is underway to refine the new model prior to the system development.