Abstract
Design of the corrugated watertight bulkhead for a bulk carrier is principally determined by the permissible limit of Classification requirements. As the weight of upper and lower stool has considerable portion of the total weight of the transverse bulkhead, optimum design including the stool geometry and size will play an important role on economic shipbuilding. The purpose of this study is focused on the minimization of steel weight using the design variables, which are the shape and the size of the corrugation as well as the upper and lower stools. Discrete variables are used as design variables for the practical design. In this study, the evolution strategies (ES), which can highly improve the possibility of leaching the global minimum point, are selected as an optimization method. Usefulness of this study is verified by comparison with the proven type ship design. As objective function, total weight of the transverse bulkhead including the upper and lower stools is used.