A Ship Design and Deployment Model for Non-Cargo Vessels Using Contract Scenarios

An optimisation model is proposed for the Ship Design and Deployment Problem (SDDP). This model can be used to support the development of the contract specification for non-cargo, service type of ships, facing a set of available contracts or market opportunities with different start-up periods, durations and vessel capability requirements. The proposed model is a binary integer programming (BIP) model, where the problem is to optimally select a design while at the same time considering which future contracts the vessel should be deployed in. Computational study shows that the model is able to solve the SDDP even for large problem sizes. Variants and extensions to the SDDP model are suggested including concurrent selection of multiple vessels (Fleet Design and Deployment Problem), existing initial fleet and forced contract assignment for some of the vessels. Further, generation of contracts and market opportunities for alternative future scenarios can also be considered.