Revisiting DDGX/DDG-51 Concept Exploration

JUSTIN STEPANCHICK, ALAN BROWN
2007 Naval engineers journal (Print)  
This study revisits concept exploration for DDG-51 using reconstructed 1978-1979 DDX and 1979 -1980 DDGX requirements and options, and 2005 tools. The goal of this study is to assess and highlight the benefits of current tools and processes for concept exploration by comparison to a well-known design that did not use these tools. This case study was completed in a summer and fall ship design project at Virginia Tech. In 1979, the acquisition and design process did not begin with a Mission Need
more » ... tatement, Analysis of Alternatives or Integrated Capabilities Document (ICD) as is required today. It began with studies, Tentative Operational Requirements, and Draft Top Level Requirements. In this study, we revisit the 1978-1980 DDG-51 (DDX/DDGX) concept exploration based on the guidance, goals and constraints of the DDX and DDGX studies, and a notional mission statement, concept of operations and list of required capabilities. The design space is defined to include many of the same design alternatives that were considered in the DDX and DDGX studies. A multiple-objective genetic optimization (MOGO) based on military effectiveness, cost and risk is used to search the design space and perform trade-offs. A simple ship synthesis model is used to balance the designs, assess feasibility and calculate cost, risk and effectiveness. Alternative designs are ranked by cost, risk, and effectiveness, and presented in a series of non-dominated frontiers. Concepts for further study and development are chosen from this frontier and a comparison to DDG-51 is made based on these results. MOTIVATION & INTRODUCTION The traditional approach to ship design is largely an 'ad hoc' process. Experience, design lanes, rules of thumb, preference, and imagination guide selection of design concepts for assessment. Often, objective attributes are not adequately synthesized or presented to support efficient and effective decisions. This case study uses a total system approach for the design process, including a structured search of the design space based on the multi-objective consideration of effectiveness, cost and risk (Brown and Thomas 1998, Brown and Salcedo 2003)
doi:10.1111/j.1559-3584.2007.00069.x fatcat:3z7byeqvyrertaaecft3hcejty