1. INTRODUCTION
Michlet is a computer workbench that can be used for investigations
into some aspects of ship hydrodynamics. Although it is not a ship
design program, Michlet can be used for preliminary design work such as
estimating the resistance, wave elevation patterns and bottom
pressure signatures of monohulls, multihulls and submarines.
GODZILLA, the optimisation module of Michlet, uses artificial life
algorithms to search for hulls of minimum resistance, or for hulls with
other specific characteristics.
Michlet is not an easy program for newcomers to hull design. A
familiarity with the first few chapters of an introductory Naval
Architecture text would be useful. There are several good WWW articles
that might serve as sufficient introduction.
There are many opportunities to waste a lot of computer time and human
effort with Michlet. Incorrect specification of parameters in the
input file could result in completely useless output and it is imperative
that users gain familiarity with the input file and its nuances.
Limitations
In the manuals, Crippled signifies that the option is still under
development or that it is unavailable in the current version.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to the following people for donations, help, ideas and/or encouragement:
- Richard Akers of Ship Motion Associates, USA.
- Prof. Maurice Brearly..
- Prof. Lawry Doctors, of the University of New South Wales, Australia.
- Roger Fyffe, Texas, USA.
- Martijn van Engeland of TUDelft, Netherlands.
- Martin Grimm of the Department of Defence, Australia.
- J. de Haas Naval Architects Consultants, The Netherlands.
- Rámon Hernández-Ortega.
- Steven Hollister of Newave Systems, USA.
- Milton 'Skip' Johnson of Broad Spectrum Services, Houston,
Texas, USA.
- Kevin C. Jones.
- Graeme King of King Boatworks, Vermont, USA.
- David Lamb of AdventureTeam, USA.
- Glyn Lynd.
- Ken Maloney of Textron Marine and Land Systems, USA.
- Flaviono Navone of IUAV University, Venice, Italy.
- Dr Peter Robinson.
- Francois Rougier.
- Nich Schade of Guillemot Kayaks, Connecticut, USA.
- Dr David Scullen of the University of Adelaide, Australia.
- Tom Speer.
- Matt Stecher of Stecher Marine Designs, USA.
- Nick Suess.
- Prof. Ernie Tuck of the University of Adelaide, Australia.
- Martin Vanha.
- John Winters of Redwing Designs, Ontario, Canada.
- Prof. Igor Zotti of the University of Trieste, Italy.
Thanks also to Lysistrata, Hyperion, and Vorpal at
Avatar MUD for help with the multiple agent version and for
continuing support.
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