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Modeling of Distributed Naval Ship Systems using Architecture Flow Optimization

Successful future surface combatants in the US Navy must embrace the growing integration and interdependency of propulsive and combat systems. Traditionally, the development of Hull, Mechanical and Electrical systems has been segregated from the development of weapons and sensors. However, with the incorporation of high energy weapons into future ship configurations, ship design processes must evolve to embrace the concept of a System of Systems being the only way to achieve affordable capability in our future fleets.

This thesis bridges the gap between the physical architecture of components within a ship and the way in which they are logically connected to model the energy flow through a representative design and provide insight into sizing requirements of both system components and their connections using an Architecture Flow Optimization (AFO).

This thesis presents a unique method and tool to optimize naval ship system logical and physical architecture considering necessary operational conditions and possible damage scenarios. The particular and unique contributions of this thesis are: 1) initially only energy flow is considered without explicit consideration of commodity flow (electric, mechanical, chilled water, etc.), which is calculated in post-processing; 2) AFO is applied to a large and complex naval surface combatant system of systems, demonstrating its scalability; 3) data necessary for the AFO is extracted directly from a naval ship synthesis model at a concept exploration level of detail demonstrating its value in early stage design; and 4) it uses network-based methods which make it adaptable to future knowledge-based network analysis methods and approaches. / Master of Science / The US Navy faces a future where their ships will be required to perform a greater number and increasingly more diverse mission set while the resources provided to them dwindle. Traditionally, propulsive, electrical and weapons systems onboard ships have been segregated in their development, however, with the incorporation of high energy weapons into future ship configurations, the ship design processes must evolve to incorporate these interdependent power consumers. To take advantage of emerging technologies in a resource constrained environment, the future fleet of the US Navy must incorporate the concept of a “System of Systems” early in the ship design process.

This thesis correlates the energy available onboard a ship to how it can be distributed to components in the execution of required missions. Additionally, this thesis provides insight into the sizing requirements of intermediary and auxiliary components using an Architecture Flow Optimization (AFO) by only analyzing energy flow without considering the commodity flow (electricity, mechanical power, chilled water, etc.) which can be calculated post optimization. Using network-based methods allows the AFO to be adaptable to future knowledge-based network analysis methods and approaches while using data directly from a naval ship synthesis model enables the AFO to be scaled to incorporate a large and complex system of systems proving its value to early stage design.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/83884
Date06 July 2018
CreatorsRobinson, Kevin Michael
ContributorsAerospace and Ocean Engineering, Brown, Alan J., Odendaal, Willem G., Brizzolara, Stefano
PublisherVirginia Tech
Source SetsVirginia Tech Theses and Dissertation
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
FormatETD, application/pdf
RightsIn Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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