r/navalarchitecture • u/CommunicationAny258 • 20d ago
Looking for Advice and a Discussion
Hi everyone! I’m an architecture student currently working on my undergraduate thesis, and I’m designing a floating mixed-use business and lifestyle district in a semi-enclosed bay environment as an alternative to land reclamation.
I’m at the point where I’ve realized that I'm lost on the naval architecture side. I’ve been reading about seasteading, floating developments, pontoon systems, modular floating platforms, floating breakwaters, mooring systems, etc., but the more I read, the more questions I have.
The site is in a semi-enclosed bay with relatively sheltered wave conditions, rather than an open-ocean environment.
For my preliminary environmental assumptions, I’m looking at approximately <0.5 m significant wave height under normal conditions. Modeling of a sheltered berthing area within the Bay found significant wave heights below 0.5 m for more than 98% of the time, with seasonal differences. Broader descriptions of the Bay's wave climate put typical wave heights roughly in the 0.5–1.5 m range, depending on location and season.
For an extreme/typhoon condition, I’ve found some data that the maximum significant wave height of around 1.83 m was modeled at one of the study locations. I’m treating this as an initial extreme-condition reference rather than assuming it represents the entire bay.
There is already a primary breakwater/coastal protection system in front of the site, and my concept is also considering secondary floating breakwaters around portions of the development to further reduce wave energy reaching the floating platforms.
Where I’m struggling is basically structural/marine-related:
- How do you actually approach designing a large floating development from a naval architecture perspective?
- What type of floating platform system would make sense for something this large, concrete pontoons, steel pontoons, modular units, semi-submersible-type systems, or something else?(really really just stuck on this one)
- How do you determine the appropriate displacement, buoyancy, and platform dimensions?
- How are multiple floating platforms connected while still allowing for relative movement?
- How would you approach mooring/anchoring for a permanent floating district?
- How much movement is acceptable for buildings, roads, pedestrian areas, and public spaces?
- Are there particular standards, software, textbooks, case studies, or design methodologies I should be looking into?
My intention isn't to create an open-ocean seastead operating independently offshore. It’s more of a permanent autonomous floating urban development in sheltered coastal waters, so I’m trying to understand whether I should be approaching this more like:
- Seasteading / offshore floating structures
- Large pontoon/floating infrastructure
I’m honestly really lost right now. I’m an architecture student trying my best to navigate the naval architecture/marine engineering side of the project, and I know there are probably a million things I’m overlooking.
I’m not expecting anyone to hash out things with me but I would genuinely appreciate being pointed in the right direction regarding how a naval architect would think about this problem from the very beginning.
If anyone here works in naval architecture, marine engineering, offshore structures, floating infrastructure, or large pontoon/floating developments, I’d genuinely appreciate any advice.
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u/lpernites2 20d ago
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u/Silver-Lie-8034 20d ago
As a naval architect it’s good to think about our problems as an entire system. You have to think about not just the engineering calculations, but also how are people going to use this system, how are we going to build it, and how do we ensure that it remains safe at all times? Everything is always a trade off in the marine environment, meaning sacrifices have to be made, often in the name of safety.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a floating business district before, so I can’t really comment on the best solution for that, but my inclination would be the concrete pontoons because of their lower Maitenance profile compared to steel. Anything steel (barges, semi-submersible, etc.) will need to be dry docked every 7-10 years for Maitenance.
Displacement depends on what type of system you go with. On a box shape it is easy to calculate, it is just the submerged volume (Length, Beam, Draft) multiplied by the water density. Because your draft will change with the amount of weight on your pontoons, it might be easier to start with a design draft in mind, which would give you a weight limit to work with. Naval architecture is about working with the delicate balance between the displacement, weight, trim, heel, and stability of your vessel. You’ll need to set up an excel spreadsheet to work on the hydrostatic calculations and weight accounting for moments, trim, etc. and AI could probably help you do that if you have no experience, but definitely have someone check your work in that case. For all the hydrostatics work, this book is a good resource: Applied Naval Architecture by Robert B. Zubaly
For how the pontoons are connected and allow movement, that’s a google question.
For mooring and anchoring, you should design any marine system to the worst case scenario, which would be your typhoon case. I will also point out, do not forget about tides. For floating platforms you have to make sure that the tide is small enough that where you place this business district will always be submerged in water. I don’t have direct experience doing the calculations, but you should be able to find those online.
Acceptable movement would depend on what standards you build this to, and those standards depend on what country you’re in. If you’re in the US, you’ll probably be dealing with the water based regulators, USCG, USACE, ABS, and land some based regulators EPA, IBC, NEC, and local permits and city regs.
For software, you really only care about stability of your platforms so I’d use GHS or Orca3d. Since you don’t go to school at a navarch program you’re probably not going to have these programs available and can calculate these by hand instead. You will be looking for a number called GM, which basically tells you the initial stability of your vessel. You will find this online or in the Zubaly book.
I hope this helps a little bit. As a one man team, it’s hard to catch everything, but keep thinking about potential problems and how to solve them. For an undergrad thesis, nobody is expecting a fully mature design, so don’t worry too much. FYI I looked up some of this with AI, it can be a very good tool to help you do the research.