Page 8 - Practical Design Ships and Floating Structures

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PREFACE

During the last century the science and technology of ships and marine structures experienced
extremely great progress, and thus created the modem shipbuilding, shipping and ocean industries.
The relevant achievements were a part of the driving sources, which changed the whole world and the
society. Among the efforts towards these achievements was the creation of “The First International
Symposium on Practical Design in Shipbuilding” in 1977 in Tokyo. Later on it became a series of
symposia, PRADS as the abbreviation. Last century seven PRADS symposia were held in Tokyo (’77
and ’83), Seoul (’83 and ’99, Trondheim (’87), Varna (’89), Newcastle (’92) and The Hague (’98).
This proceedings contains the papers presented at “The 8th International Symposium on Practical
Design of Ships and Other Floating Structures” held at Shanghai Everbright Convention & Exhibition
Center, China on 16-2 1 September 2001. This is the first of the PRADS Symposia in the 21 st century.
The overall aim of PXADS symposia is to advance the design of ships and other floating structures
as a professional discipline and science by exchanging knowledge and promoting discussion of
relevant topics in the fields of naval architecture and marine and offshore engineering. Inline with the
aim, in welcoming the new era this Symposium is particularly for an increase in international
cooperation and giving a momentum for the new development of design and production technology of
ships and other floating structures for efficiency, economy, safety, and environmental production.
The main themes of this Symposium are Design Synthesis, Production, Hydrodynamics.
Structures and Materials of Ships and Floating Systems. Proposals for over 270 papers from 26
countries and regions within the themes were received for PRADS’2001, and about 170 papers were
accepted for presentation at the symposium. With the high quality of thc proposed papers the Local
Organizing Committee had a difficult task to make a balanced selection and to control the total number
of papers for fitting into the allocated time schedule approved by the Standing Committee of PRADS.
Volume I of the proceedings covers the subjects about design synthesis, production and part of
hydrodynamics. Volume I1 contains the subjects for the rest of hydrodynamics, structures and
materials.
On behalf of the Standing Committee of PRADS and the Local Organizing Committee of
PRADS’2001, we would like to thank all the participants for their great contributions to the successful
symposium. The full support from the sponsors, Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering Division of
Chinese Academy of Engineering, Chinese Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, and
Chinese Institute of Navigation are greatly acknowledged. Sincere gratitude is also extended to China
Ship Scientific Research Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and other institutes and shipyards in
China. who have helped the preparation of this Symposium.

You-Sheng Wu
Wei-Cheng Cui
Guo-Jun Zhou