Using a speed optimisation problem variant
instance of the US Navy patrol boat SEAFIGHTER, It has been demonstrated
in the work reported in this paper that the linear programming
formulation yields better results than the nonlinear programming
formulation for the ship speed optimisation problem. Furthermore, it is
shown that the uniform single speed assumption does not in fact hold
unless ship fuel consumption rate is a convex function of ship speed, as
assumed in most work on the ship speed optimisation
problem19. Therefore, great care must be taken in
using the uniform single speed assumption, in view of the complex nature
of the functional relation between ship fuel consumption rate and ship
speed, as pointed out by Psarftis and Kontovas4.