Verification and validation of a commercial software product that uses a new type of finite element method in the design cycle of a wecdis console prototype

WECDIS is an electronic chart display system for warships that is being used commonly around the world navies. Since the introduction of GENESIS and MILGEM Projects in mid-2000's one of the top priorities in the Turkish Navy's agenda has been the development of national technologies for new vessels as well as modernizing the old ones. In order to fulfil one of these necessities, a TUBİTAK R&D Project was initiated with the aim of building a custom WECDIS Console as its end product. The current study focuses on the design process cycle of this product by utilizing a new FEM approach called the external finite element approximations to meet highly demanding MIL-STD standards that are necessary because of the harsh conditions of naval environment. Research and analysis were performed to validate and verify the new approach and compare it with the traditional FEM-based tools to clarify and evaluate the feasibility and convenience of the former. Anticipated result of the new approach offers a cut down CPU usage by 95 per cent and decrease the RAM usage by 88 per cent. The drawback in accuracy is only expected to be around 10 per cent.