Subdivision Blocks and Component Placement in Early-Stage Ship Design

One task in ship design involves arranging a large number of components within the compartments of a ship. A faster, more efficient way of doing this is by allowing an algorithm to automatically place these components in the ship. Representing compartments as subdivision blocks simplifies and speeds up the design process. This paper details a method to create subdivision blocks from the compartments of a ship and to fully integrate them within LEAPS, the Navy's data repository, allowing the subdivision blocks to be used within all LEAPS-integrated software. The algorithm, several examples, and the primary application of this work are explained.