In nowadays economy the world’s container fleet, with the glance of new vessels construction is characterized by an excess of container capacity. This factor increases competition in the freight market. The only way to gain positions in the container transportation market is to improve existing designs and build new ships. Research is intensively conducted in this area abroad and now container ships with a capacity of 18,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU − Triple-E Class) are being built already. Such ships will be constructed between 2013 and 2014. In our country there is a lack in the scientific and engineering investigations on the subject.
The design process of the ship is multi-stage, and is characterized by its complexity. Currently, however, modern computer-aided design (CAD) system helps designers; it enables to develop new vessels with high quality and in a short time. Basis for the development of technical designs are the results obtained in the early stages of research design using CAD system, which are designed to provide a multivariate research of the vessel design concept and then select an option in a contract specification or suggestions. The usage of research system allows producing optimum performance options of vessels. But it should be noted that these systems are ‘proprietary’ instruments and are not intended to replicate.
To compete with foreign design companies effectively, it is necessary for domestic research to develop CAD systems for various types of vessels and, above all, long-term concepts. It is especially important for container ships, because there is no domestic design experience in the past two decades. This requires, first of all, the development of the initial design methodology and the corresponding mathematical model of the design of modern container ships designed for using in CAD system vessels of this type.