The optimal design of piping arrangement in ship's engine room with consideration of equipment operability space

It has been a research interest to develop a system that is alternative to manual sketches, and that attempts to produce a highly automatic, time-saving, and material-saving pipeline arrangement. The study developed a system that starts with cuboidalizing fixtures between pipelines, and then adopts Genetic Algorism and Objective Function to present a design that avoid fixtures. When fixtures occupy so much space in the area enclosed by the input and output of pipelines, the system would automatically make a detour to the outside space. The study features the ergonomie consideration of space it takes to operate equipment. Together with economic consideration, the proposed approach is expected to produce efficient and optimal pipeline arrangements.