Evaluation on Sensitivity and Approximate Modeling of Fire-Resistance Performance for A60 Class Deck Penetration Piece Using Heat-Transfer Analysis and Fire Test

The A60 class deck penetration piece is a fire-resistance apparatus installed on the deck compartment to protect lives and to prevent flame diffusion in the case of a fire accident in a ship or offshore plant. In this study, the sensitivity of the fire-resistance performance and approximation characteristics for the A60 class penetration piece was evaluated by conducting a transient heat-transfer analysis and fire test. The transient heat-transfer analysis was conducted to evaluate the fire-resistance design of the A60 class deck penetration piece, and the analysis results were verified via the fire test. The penetration-piece length, diameter, material type, and insulation density were used as the design factors (DFs), and the output responses were the weight, temperature, cost, and productivity. The quantitative effects of each DF on the output responses were evaluated using the design-of-experiments method. Additionally, an optimum design case was identified to minimize the weight of the A60 class deck penetration piece while satisfying the allowable limits of the output responses. According to the design-of-experiments results, various approximate models, e.g., a Kriging model, the response surface method, and a radial basis function-based neural network (RBFN), were generated. The design-of-experiments results were verified by the approximation results. It was concluded that among the approximate models, the RBFN was able to explore the design space of the A60 class deck penetration piece with the highest accuracy.