A study on minimum weight design of vertical corrugated bulkheads for chemical tankers

Corrugated bulkhead has been adopted for cargo tank bulkheads of commercial vessels such as bulk carriers, product oil carriers and chemical tankers. It is considered that corrugated bulkhead is a preferred structural solution, compared to the flat stiffened bulkhead, due to several advantages such as lower mass, easier maintenance and smaller corrosion problems. Many researches to find the optimum shape of corrugated bulkhead have been mostly carried out for bulk carriers. Compared to corrugated bulkheads of bulk carriers, ones of chemical tankers are more complicated since they are composed of transverse and longitudinal bulkheads, and they are made of higher priced materials. The purpose of this study is the development of minimum weight design method for corrugated bulkhead of chemical tankers. Evolution strategy is applied as an optimization technique. It has been verified from many researches that evolution strategy searches global optimum point prominently by using multi-individual searching technique. Multi-individual searching methods need excessive time if they connect to 3-D finite element model for repetitive structural analyses. In order to resolve this issue, 2-D beam element connected to deck and lower stool is substituted for a corrugated structure in this study. To verify the reliability of the structural responses by idealized 2-D beam model, they have been compared with ones by 3-D finite element model. In this study, optimum design for corrugated bulkhead of 30 K chemical tanker has been carried out, and the results by developed optimum design program have been compared with design data of existing ship. It is found out that optimum design is about 9% lighter than one of existing ship.