ABSTRACT
Tankers are typical ships that are characterized by two different operating conditions: laden and ballast. In the ballast condition there is a major change in the B/T ratio compared to the one applied
1 INTRODUCTION
The ship hull form design is a complex process where compromises need to be made among various and usually conflicting requirements. In general, many factors must be considered and not all of them are hydrodynamic in nature. However, from the hydrodynamic point of view, the most interesting optimization contribution is the minimization of the total ship resistance, or the ship resistance components. In order to perform a hydrodynamic optimization, an objective function that compares and quantifies the merit of different ship hull forms needs to be defined. This objective function depends upon the set of design variables and consequently upon the changes of the flow characteristics due to them. The aim is then to minimize (or in some cases maximize) the objective function subject to equations that govern the flow, physical and geometric constraints.
