One of the aspects of Trimaran ship design that has been identified, from the early papers presenting the advantages of the Trimaran design, is the improvements to the general arrangements resulting from the trimaran cross deck linking the side hulls to the slender main hull. While the majority of publications dealing with over a decade of trimaran ship design development have focused on specific aspects of the naval architecture of trimarans, there has been little systematic exploration of the advantages provided by this unique configuration and how the ship's architecture is reflected in the trimaran ship design process. The paper considers earlier expositions that discussed the overall design considerations for trimaran ships based on the pioneering investigations and the subsequent large number and range of naval and commercial trimaran design studies undertaken since 1989 at UCL, drawing out the architecturally specific aspects. Two recent papers on ship architecture both considered trimaran as a specific case in which the architectural aspects could be readily enhanced in the two instances of frigate and aircraft carrier design. These explorations and the earlier design studies are drawn on to show the interaction of ship configuration and layout with the overall design issues for a range of trimaran applications. Recent example trimaran ship design studies, undertaken by the UCL Design Research Centre using the architecturally based Design Building Block methodology centred SURFCON ship design tool, are presented. These provide some specific insights into the manner in which the initial design determination and the architectural considerations can be integrated in trimaran ship design.
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