In recent years the introduction of glass fibre reinforced plastic (GFRP) in the recreational boat industry has been undoubtedly significant. Wood has been gradually replaced, thus modifying the classic canon of shipbuilding industry and leading to an industrial revolution that has strongly changed the way boats are designed and produced. GFRPs are widely used in the marine industry thanks to their good environmental resistance, the possibility of realising complex shapes and also their high specific strength and stiffness. The key feature is their weight, which has made the sandwich concept an attractive alternative to the traditional design concept. In fact, the growing request of larger and faster ships has increased the demand for lighter and stronger structures and for a better utilisation of both the materials and the involved structure. A lighter ship building allows to obtain: high acceleration, low consumption and, as a consequence, higher attention for the environment, possibility to use less powerful engines, higher cargos. A ship, made with GFRP, consists mainly of the following parts: - hull: frame or body of the boat. This structure is reinforced by internal transversal panels, i.e. multiple watertight bulkheads are used to divide the hull into many compartments. Such structural solution optimises the resistance to axial deformations, shear loads and unsymmetrical static or dynamic loads that can occur locally under working conditions; - deck: permanent covering over compartments or hull. On a ship, the primary deck is the horizontal structure which forms the 'roof' for the hull. It strengthens the hull and serves as the primary working surface as well; - superstructures: upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. They are the parts of a boat that project above her main deck. All these parts and structural elements have to be connected. In particular, it is possible to identify three different joining systems: - over-lamination: between the parts, that have to be joined, several glass fibre fabrics (i.e. Mat) with polyester or vinyl-ester resin are laminated through a hand lay-up process; - adhesive bonding: a mixture in a liquid or semi-liquid state adheres or bonds items together. Adhesives may come from either natural or synthetic sources. Some modern adhesives are extremely strong, and are becoming increasingly important in modern construction and industry; - mechanical fastener: device that holds two or more objects together. The structures are drilled and then assembled by a fastener (i.e. a button or a zipper as well as a bolt or a screw). The aim of this work is to give an outlook of the characteristics of these kinds of GFRP structures’ joining in terms of advantages and limits, failure modes, configurations, applications, finite element modelling.

Joining of GFRP in Marine Applications

BORSELLINO, Chiara;DI BELLA, GUIDO;GALTIERI, GIOVANNA;POLLICINO, ENZO
2012-01-01

Abstract

In recent years the introduction of glass fibre reinforced plastic (GFRP) in the recreational boat industry has been undoubtedly significant. Wood has been gradually replaced, thus modifying the classic canon of shipbuilding industry and leading to an industrial revolution that has strongly changed the way boats are designed and produced. GFRPs are widely used in the marine industry thanks to their good environmental resistance, the possibility of realising complex shapes and also their high specific strength and stiffness. The key feature is their weight, which has made the sandwich concept an attractive alternative to the traditional design concept. In fact, the growing request of larger and faster ships has increased the demand for lighter and stronger structures and for a better utilisation of both the materials and the involved structure. A lighter ship building allows to obtain: high acceleration, low consumption and, as a consequence, higher attention for the environment, possibility to use less powerful engines, higher cargos. A ship, made with GFRP, consists mainly of the following parts: - hull: frame or body of the boat. This structure is reinforced by internal transversal panels, i.e. multiple watertight bulkheads are used to divide the hull into many compartments. Such structural solution optimises the resistance to axial deformations, shear loads and unsymmetrical static or dynamic loads that can occur locally under working conditions; - deck: permanent covering over compartments or hull. On a ship, the primary deck is the horizontal structure which forms the 'roof' for the hull. It strengthens the hull and serves as the primary working surface as well; - superstructures: upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. They are the parts of a boat that project above her main deck. All these parts and structural elements have to be connected. In particular, it is possible to identify three different joining systems: - over-lamination: between the parts, that have to be joined, several glass fibre fabrics (i.e. Mat) with polyester or vinyl-ester resin are laminated through a hand lay-up process; - adhesive bonding: a mixture in a liquid or semi-liquid state adheres or bonds items together. Adhesives may come from either natural or synthetic sources. Some modern adhesives are extremely strong, and are becoming increasingly important in modern construction and industry; - mechanical fastener: device that holds two or more objects together. The structures are drilled and then assembled by a fastener (i.e. a button or a zipper as well as a bolt or a screw). The aim of this work is to give an outlook of the characteristics of these kinds of GFRP structures’ joining in terms of advantages and limits, failure modes, configurations, applications, finite element modelling.
2012
9781621000457
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11570/1946815
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