[Advanced Composite Materials and Structure]

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Abstract

The use of advanced composite materials is now limited to only a small portion of the total marine use of glass fibre reinforced plastics. Since marine transportation is looking at higher speeds with the development of new vehicle forms other than the displacement type, there is a great demand to reduce structural weight for pursuing lighter marine structure. Design from first principles will give a greater chance to optimize advanced composite materials for lightest marine structure.

Table of Content

Chapter 1: Introduction6

Chapter 2: Literature Review7

Chapter 3: Material Design8

References12

Chapter 1: Introduction

The use of glass fibre reinforced plastics (GFRP) for boat and ship structures is no longer a novelty. The marine industry is historically one of the oldest and largest commercial users of GFRP, which has yielded many technological developments of GFRP as structural materials. However, the materials have so far been limited mainly to E glass fibre and polyester resin whose development has apparently reached a plateau. The so-called advanced composite materials, which generally refer to the higher performance fibres such as carbon fibre (CF), boron fibre (BF) and aramid fibre (AF), are now becoming extensively accepted, particularly in the aerospace industry (Riley, 1989, 511).

The application of advanced composite materials in the marine industry has, however, been limited to high-performance racing yachts, high-speed power boats and some surface effect ships because of the high material cost and the sophisticated manufacturing method. As greater speeds are sought in high-speed marine transportation the need to reduce weight becomes more important.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

It is an evident tendency that the application of advanced composite materials, especially, CFRP, to aerospace vehicles has been increasing and is being extended from secondary to primary structures. However, development work is still required in order to take full advantage of high performance CFRP even in the aerospace industry (Matsui, 1985, 171). The marine industry can learn from the experiences and achievements in the aerospace field, although the manufacturing technique ...