Auto-routing Methods for Complex Ship Pipe Route Design

Pipe route design is one of the most complex and time-consuming steps in the ship detailed design. A large number of scholars have studied the optimization of ship pipe routes, but there is still a lack of a fast and effective method for the automatic design of complex pipe routes. For this reason, this article proposes the auto-routing methods of single pipes, branch pipes, and multipipes. The auto-routing methods are based on an Improved A* algorithm. Compared with the traditional A* algorithm, the Improved A* algorithm considers the constraints of ship pipe route design. And by introducing “Blocking Iteration” and dynamic weight, the accuracy and efficiency of the algorithm are improved. On this basis, this article uses Python and OpenGL to develop the automatic pipe route design system. The system supports the automatic pipe route design, visualization of optimization results, and two-way interaction with three-dimensional (3-D) design software. Finally, the practicability of the proposed methods and system is verified by the simulation on a comparison case and an actual fuel filling and transfer pipe system.