Development of a Distortion Control ‘Toolbox’ to Mitigate Distortion in Surface Ships

This paper describes the development of a distortion control ‘Toolbox’ that can be used to mitigate distortion in thin-structured ship design and fabrication. Highlights of the NSRP project entitled, “Distortion Control ‘Toolbox’ for Lightweight Ship Structures” are presented. The different points of view used to develop distortion reduction recipes include: historic evidence-based approaches obtained from an extensive literature survey, development of ideal states which quantify the best result that can be expected, identification of factors that affect distortion and the relative strength (contribution) of each effect on the final distorted shape, business case and costs for reducing distortion, and a shipyard perspective on what can be done to reduce distortion.