Optimal Preliminary Propeller Design Based on Multi-objective Optimization Approach

The match of ship, engine and propeller is one of the most important problems in ship conceptual design. The propeller design in conceptual design stage is a multi-objective optimization problem. The objectives are efficiency ratio and thrust coefficient. A multi-objective optimization approach is proposed for propeller preliminary design in present study. A Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA II) is employed to approximate the set of Pareto solution through an evolutionary optimization process. Then a decision making approach is adopted to select “best” solution. A B-propeller design example is conducted to illustrate the analysis process in present work.