A comparison of Multidisciplinary Design Optimization algorithms and their application to the design of ships and offshore platforms

Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) is a methodology for the design of complex engineering systems and subsystems that coherently exploits the synergism of mutually interacting phenomena. Due to the obvious shortcomings of the traditional design-spiral approach for both ships and offshore platforms, it leads naturally to the desire to implement MDO techniques. This paper introduces the definition, category and development of MDO algorithm. The latter is the core technique of MDO theory and that is mostly studied. Four mainstream algorithms are elaborated from five aspects: Origin, optimization procedure, advantages and disadvantages, other variants and their applications. Then a comparison of them is made. Finally, based on the analysis of the characteristics of the design of ships and offshore platforms, some crucial and desirous qualities for an algorithm when implementing MDO are concluded. In addition, two algorithms-collaborative optimization based on approximation models and BLISS 2000 are recommended as suitable methods to apply MDO techniques in the design of ships and offshore platforms.