A topological approach to hull form design.
Twelfth International Conference on Hydrodynamics in Ship Design, 17-19 September 1997, Szklarska Por ba, Poland
H.J. Koelman (1997)
ABSTRACT
The traditional approach of the design of lines of the ship is based upon sections lying in mainly orthogonal planes. Fairness and coherence was maintained and judged by a human designer, partly in a heuristic way. Contemporary CAD methods which follow this traditional approach are inefficient, because they lack heuristics. CAD methods which are based upon state-of-the-art mathematical formulae for surface modeling, such as B-splines or NURBS, cannot handle sections lying strictly in orthogonal planes. Due to their inflexibility they are unsuitable for production fairing. Methods based on 3D line modeling may lead to topological inconsistent models. After a discussion of popular computer methods, the main disadvantages of these methods will be discussed, as well as some possible alternatives. Finally the new hullform modeling program "Fairway", which is based on the alternative methods, will be described and by means of some examples it is demonstrated that traditional limitations do not occur with the Fairway approach.
