International Conference on Computational Methods in Marine Engineering

MARINE 2007
P. Bergan , J. García, E. Oñate, and T. Kvamsdal, (Eds)
 CIMNE, Barcelona, 2007

A NEURAL NETWORKS APPROACH TO TOTAL RESISTANCE’S

COEFICIENTS OF SHIP PREDICTION
I. ORTIGOSA, R. LOPEZ AND J. GARCIA

International Center for Numerical Methods in Engineering (CIMNE)

Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña
Campus Norte UPC, 08034 Barcelona, Spain
E-mail: inmaortigosa@hotmail.com, rlopez@cimne.upc.edu and julio@cimne.upc.edu
Web page: http://www.cimne.com

Key words: Total Resistance’s components, Neural Networks, Holtrop & Mennen Method.

Summary.

The Holtrop & Mennen method is widely used at the initial design stage of ships for
estimating the resistance of the ship [1]. This method was developed from an extensive set of
model-ship experiments and full-scale experiments. Holtrop & Mennen’s full-scale
measurements were involved in an extensive model ship correlation study initiated and co-
ordinated by the Performance Committee of the International Towing Tank. The experiments
were developed whit tankers, bulk carriers, general cargo, fishing vessels, tugs, container
ships, frigates, and other type of ships defined for length-displacement ratio, prismatic
coefficient and Froude number into a range. The Holtrop & Mennen method provide a
prediction of the total resistance’s components, each component is expressed as a function of
the speed and hull form parameters.

In this work we present a neural network model which performs the same task as the Holtrop
& Mennem’s method, for two of the total resistance’s components. A multilayer perceptron
has been therefore trained to learn the relationship between the input (length-displacement
ratio, prismatic coefficient, longitudinal position of the centre of buoyancy, after body form
and Froude number) and the target variables (form factor and wave-making and wave-
breaking resistance per unit weight of displacement). The network architecture with best
generalization properties was obtained through an exhaustive validation analysis [2]. The
results of this model have been compared against those provided by the Holtrop & Mennen
method, and it was found that the quality of the prediction is improved over the entire range
of data. The neural network provides an accurate estimation of two total resistance’s
components with Froude number and hull geometry coefficients as variables.

REFERENCES
[1] An approximate power prediction by J. Holtrop and G.G.J. Mennen, International
Shipbuilding Progress Vol.29 July 1982.
[2] S. Haykin, Neural Networks: A Comprehensive Foundation, Prentice Hall, 1994.