The design of a ship’s General Arrangements is subject to a host of criteria and constraints stemming from physical, operational, and mandated restrictions. These impositions on the ship designs pan a wide range of considerations reflecting owner or mission needs, legal requirements, operator considerations, safety, system needs, convention, and support facilities. Since the General Arrangements represents the core of ship design, the criteria and constraints must be satisfied as a necessary condition for developing a viable craft.
The selection of stability criteria has an enormous impact on a ship's arrangement in terms of subdivision, access, and functional location of compartments. In addition to access and compartmentation impacts, ship support systems such as piping and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) are also affected. The degree of impact on a ship's arrangement can be directly related to cost and survivability depending on the stability criteria selected. The deciding factors for determining the stability criteria to be used should consider the operation of the ship and the degree of safety that the cost constraints of a ship design program can afford, without severely impacting the configuration of the ship to meet mission requirements.
The objective of this paper is to identify the various stability requirements and to assess the impacts on the general arrangement and ship systems. This assessment is intended to provide a quantitative means of evaluation for determining the appropriate stability criteria which best suits a particular ship's mission.