Estimating the lightship mass is an important factor in the early stage of ship design given its impact on shipbuilding costs. The mass of the hull and equipment, as well as its distribution, affects the hull strength, deadweight, and stability of the ship. Furthermore, a good estimate of the lightship mass in the preliminary phase is very important for defining the construction costs as accurately as possible. As the time available to the designer in the conceptual or preliminary phase of ship design is often limited, the methods used to determine the lightship mass must be reliable, fast, and effective. The paper presents and analyzes methods for estimating the lightship mass that are based on empirical data of built ships. Several empirical methods were combined and calibrated to establish the least-squares method which combination gives the value of the lightship mass closest to the one given in the collected database for three types of merchant ships: tankers, bulk carriers, and container ships. The paper presents the results of the calculations of the masses of hull steel, outfitting, machinery, and superstructure. It can be concluded that the presented model for all three types of merchant ships gives satisfactory results.
The Lightship Mass Calculation Model Of A Merchant Ship By Empirical Methods
