In Pursuit of Quieter Ship Design

Abstract

The design and construction of a ship — whether a merchant ship, passenger ship, exploratory vessel, warship, or any other vessel — takes many years, encompassing many stages of design and construction, before entering into its chartered service. The importance of building acoustically silent ships needs no emphasis. It could be airborne noise reduction for better habitability, or reduction of underwater radiated noise for stealthy features. With the development of various acoustical materials, active noise and vibration cancellation techniques, various acoustic mitigation measures (Table 1), one can today design and construct much more quieter ships. This is effectively possible only if all acoustical aspects form an integral part of the vessel design from conceptual stage to construction stage. Preceding noise mitigation measures, one needs to predict the radiated noise, self-noise, and airborne noise of the ship under consideration at the design stage itself.