Minimal convex environmental contours (Q6574915)

This article considers an optimization problem from the field of maritime structure reliability analysis. The authors begin with an introduction and background to the environmental contour mathematical toolkit and its applicability in assessing maritime structure reliability under extreme environmental conditions. The second and third sections introduce the special case of the two dimensional problem. This is followed by the calculation of the minimal valid contours in the continuous case and the approximation of the optimal solution via a discrete simplification of the problem. Several theorems are presented with proof and some numerical examples are outlined. The second part of the article considers the question of existence of optimal solutions for the continuous problem. The convergence of the algorithm is examined in detail in the last sections and a list of relevant references concludes this paper.