Title: Early-Stage Assessment of the Impacts of Next Generation Combat Power and Energy Systems on Navy Ships
Authors: Dr. Douglas T. Rigterink, Robert Ames, Dr. Alexander W. Gray, Dr. Norbert Doerry
Abstract: The newest suite of weapon and C4I systems for the next generation of Navy ships will have electrical power requirements far greater than any current design. As of today, the Navy does not have a process or the tools for addressing the coupled problems of high power electrical system design, control, and vulnerability analysis, especially within a set-based design paradigm. The task of formalizing a process and developing requirements for the necessary tools has been assumed by the Design Tools and Methodology Working Integrated Product Team (DTM WIPT) as part of the Navy’s Combat Power and Energy Systems Overarching Integrated Product Team. This paper presents the process developed by the DTM WIPT which utilizes the novel concept of ship power generation “patterns” combined with design space exploration. The use of power generation patterns is enabled by the newly developed Smart Ship Systems Design (S3D) tool and design space exploration is facilitated by the Rapid Ship Design Environment (RSDE) and the Advanced Ship and Submarine Evaluation Tool (ASSET). The new process will be demonstrated through the creation of a medium voltage DC power generation system and the assessment of its impacts on a notional surface combatant.