Theoretical Approach to Profit-Maximizing Design Margin Selection

摘要

Design margins on speed or weight (to name just two) are used to ensure performance of a ship design given uncertainties in the design models or the production process. Although facing a high probability of meeting all performance requirements is very desirable, this assurance also comes at a price. When designers have the choice to set multiple margins, which all have some interacting effect on the vessel's performance, the problem of choosing a profit-optimal margin combination becomes nontrivial. This paper outlines a theoretical approach to margin selection using Pareto frontiers and summarizes Whitcomb and Meyer (2000) in which this theory is applied using numerical methods.