Development of Network-Distributable CFD-Based Optimization System

本研究的目的是开发一个基于网络分布cfd的通用水动力设计优化系统。该系统最大的特点是结构紧凑、可网络分布，解决了目前船舶设计中IT应用中存在的CAD、分析方法、优化方法独立开发、网络接口不完善等问题。在第一年和第二年的部分时间里，重点是在独立服务器上开发CAD/CFD/Optimizer集成设计系统。然后在第二年的剩余时间里，将系统扩展到网络分布式架构，使每个模块可以位于同一局域网内的任意计算资源上。作为示范，将商业船舶设计CAD系统NAPA集成到本系统中。CFD和优化器模块分别采用Rakine-source面板法和基于SQP和遗传算法的非线性规划代码。结果表明，该方法在集装箱船船首优化中的应用前景十分广阔。最后，第三年（最后一年）的主要工作是进一步评价现行制度和文件。结果显示，现行制度为希望充分利用其资讯科技应用资源的设计师提供了优势，这导致设计师有更多机会研究替代设计。总而言之，目前工作的所有任务都已圆满完成，在许多设计应用中似乎有可能进一步扩展目前的系统。事实上，该扩展目前正在与几个IT行业合作进行中。

The objective of the present research is to develop a network-distributable CFD-based optimization system for general hydrodynamic design. The most important feature of the present system is the compact and network-distributable architecture, which resolves many issues in current usage of IT applications in ship design, i.e., CAD, analysis methods, and optimization methods have been independently developed and the networking interfaces are not well established.In the first year and part of the second year, focus was placed on development of CAD/CFD/Optimizer integrated design system on a standalone server. Then in rest of the second year, the system was extended including the network-distributable architecture so that each module may be located at arbitral computing resource within the same local area network. As a demonstration, a commercial CAD system for ship design, NAPA, was integrated into the present system. The CFD and optimizer modules are a Rakine-source panel method and non linear programming codes based on SQP and GA, all of which were developed by the present investigators. Those tasks were successfully completed, and results presented for a container-ship bow optimization were shown to be very promising.Finally, main effort in the third year (final year) was directed toward further evaluation of the present system and documentation. It was shown that the present system offers advantages to designers who wish to make full use of their IT application resources, which leaded to an important fact that designers have more opportunities to study alternative designs. In conclusion, all tasks of the present work had been successfully completed, and further extension of the present system appeared to be possible in many design applications. In fact, the extension has been currently in progress in collaboration with several IT industries.