Marine shafting reasonable alignment design based on genetic algorithm

Marine shafting alignment is an indispensable part of marine propulsion shafting design and installation. In this paper, the marine shafting reasonable alignment based on genetic algorithm is investigated. The three-moment theory is utilized to analyze the bearing loads at straight alignment and bearing additional loads caused by offsets of bearings and inflections of flanges. An optimization model of reasonable alignment is constructed in which both the maximum and mean of loads for bearings are taken as the objective function while the offsets of bearings and inflections of flanges are all considered. The constrained optimal design problem is solved using real coded genetic algorithm avoiding of the sensitivity analysis. The correctness and validity of the design method are illustrated by a numerical example.