The OptiLoading program is a computerized system for planning and evaluating a ship's loading condition. It calculates the ship stability and stress characteristics based on desired loading condition. It can use a lineair programming or simulated annealing to automatically find the optimal loading condition.
Load Masters have been around for a long time, but conventional Load Masters require the manual input of the cargo in each compartment. Usually there are many loading configurations which satisfy stress and stability criteria. Which one of these configurations is the best? OptiLoading will provide the optimal loading configuration for a number of given masses. OptiLoading is being developed as part of a thesis, written at the Antwerp Maritime Academy. It will be a step-by-step process which you can follow on this website. The goal is to develop a fully working load master, which calculates the best load configuration automatically.
This demonstration version of OptiLoading is developed for the M/V Britt, a chemical tanker with a length of 85,83 m. Unfortunally not all data from this ship was available. This is the reason why the outputted stability information and strength curves can only be considered as an approximation. The main purpose of OptiLoading is to demonstrate the theoretical assumpsions made in the master thesis "Optimized stowage planning for tankers and bulk carriers" written by Tim Pintens at the Antwerp Maritme Academy.
All ships data is loaded from XML files with a clear structure. As a result the program can easily be adapted for other ships.
By making this program freely available and including the source code it is my hope that this program will be further developed and could lead to better stowage planning on board of tankers and bulk carriers.