Structural design optimization of racing motor boat based on nonlinear finite element analysis

ABSTRACTSince 1980's, optimum design techniques for ship structural design have been developed to the preliminary design which aims at minimum weight or minimum cost design of mid-ship section based on analytic structural analysis. But the optimum structural design researches about the application for the detail design of local structure based on FEA have been still insufficient. This paper presents optimization technique for the detail design of a racing motor boat. To improve the performance and reduce the damage of a real existing racing boat, direct structural analyses; static and non-linear transient dynamic analyses, were carried out to check the constraints of minimum weight design. As a result, it is shown that the optimum structural design of a racing boat has to be focused on reducing impulse response from pitching motion than static response because the dynamic effect is more dominant. Optimum design algorithm based on nonlinear finite element analysis for a racing motor boat was developed and coded to ANSYS, and its applicability for actual structural design was verifed.