Light Ship Weight Estimating

w200 - Propulsion Plant Weight - For w200 weights I have plotted the total propulsion plant weight versus the installed propulsion power, as shown below.  I show several trend lines on the graph.

• The Black line represents a curve fit through all the data points except nuclear
• The Gray data points and line represents a curve fit through all data points for vessels with nuclear powered steam plants
• The Brown data points and line represents a curve fit through all data points for vessels with conventional steam plants
• The Green data points (with Green centers) and line represents a curve fit through most of the data points for vessels with diesel plants.
• The Green data point with the Yellow center represent diesel propelled fast attack craft, whose plants appear to be lighter than the diesel plants on the other lower speed vessels.
• The Red data points (with the Red center) and line represent vessels with Combined Diesel or Gas Turbine (CODOG) power plants
• The Red data points with the Yellow center represents CODOG propelled fast attack craft, whose plants appear to be lighter than the CODOG plants on the other lower speed vessels.
• The Blue data points (with the Blue center) and line represent vessels with Combined Gas Turbine and Gas Turbine (COGAG) power plants
• The Blue data points with the Yellow center represents a COGAG propelled fast attack craft, whose plants appears to be lighter than the COGAG plants on the other lower speed vessels.

w500 - Auxiliary Systems Weight - For w500 weights, I have plotted them against the vessel's cubic number (which is equal to the vessel's length x beam x hull depth).

w600 - Outfit & Furnishing Weight - For w600 weights, I have plotted them against the vessel's cubic number (which is equal to the vessel's length x beam x hull depth).

w400 - C4ISR Weight - With respect to w400 weights, although an initial estimate can be made based on the data provided on the Pre-Processor sheet, eventually it will become necessary to come up with a better estimate of some of the individual subcomponents of this group. As such below is a graph of w410 through w440 versus cubic number, which should help users in making a better estimate of these weights as their designs are developed.

In general, w410 through w440 represent weights within the w400 group that may be more related to overall vessel size than some of the other components, and thus may vary from the intial estimates made in the Pre-Pocessor section, especially if the size of the vessel is varied.  For reference;

• w410 weights represent a vessel's Command & Control weights,
• w420 weights represent a vessel's Navigation System weights,
• w430 weights represent a vessel's Interior Communications System eights, and
• w440 weights represent a vessel's Exterior Communication System weights

Additionally, a second graph of just w420 and w430 weights is also provided below as some of the cost estimating methodologies I have been reviewing treat the weights for these groups slightly differently than the rest of the w400 weights.

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