Automated engine room layout generator accounting for safety requirements and dependencies of alternative power and energy systems

This study proposes an automated layout generator for engine rooms, modelled as an unequal-area facility layout problem (UA-FLP), that accounts for safety requirements and evaluates the impact of alternative-fuelled power, propulsion, and energy (PPE) component dependencies on the engine room layout. Specifically, the mathematical formulation introduces: (1) a 2-stage approach that combines a first stage optimization scheme to determine the initial PPE components position with a second stage cross-correlation algorithm to include surrounding margins and blocked areas in the engine room, (2) the integration of distance constraints and margins for safety, and (3) analysis of PPE components dependencies using community detection. Three optimization schemes have been evaluated for the first stage, namely one linear formulation and two non-linear formulations, which have been compared across different problem sizes. Mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) proved to be the most scalable and accurate. The case study on three methanol PPE configurations with alternative safety levels showed that the internal combustion engine (ICE) configuration was the most compact engine room ( 17.3 − 17.7 m ). Hybrid configurations had comparable lengths between 20.6 − 22.8 m . Finally, safety considerations highlighted the drastic effect of the methanol fuel system placement on connection costs, while alternative designs can reduce length by up to 2.2 m .