Effect of fabrication processes on mechanical properties of glass fiber reinforced polymer composites for 49 meter (160 foot) recreational yachts

Abstract

Polymer composite materials offer high strength and stiffness to weightratio, corrosion resistance, and total life cost reductions that appealto the marine industry. The advantages of composite construction haveled to their incorporation in U.S. yacht hull structures over 46 meters(150 feet) in length. In order to construct even larger hull structures,higher quality composites with lower cost production techniques need tobe developed. In this study the effect of composite hull fabricationprocesses on mechanical properties of glass fiber reinforced plastic(GFRP) composites is presented. Fabrication techniques investigatedduring this study are hand lay-up (HL), vacuum infusion (VI), and hybrid(HL+VI) processes. Mechanical property testing includes: tensile,compressive, and ignition loss sample analysis. Results demonstrate thatthe vacuum pressure implemented during composite fabrication has aneffect on mechanical properties. The VI processed GFRP yields improvedmechanical properties in tension/compression strengths and tensilemodulus. The hybrid GFRP composites, however; failed in a sequentialmanor, due to dissimilar failure modes in the HL and VI processed sides.Fractography analysis was conducted to validate the mechanical propertytesting results.