Joining of Very Large, Low Cost Pultruded Advanced Composite Structures in Shipbuilding

KaZaK Composites proposes to design and demonstrate innovative, low cost pultrusion technology that meets DD(X) structural requirements, and could significantly reduce the finished cost of composite ship structures compared to VARTM. A database of design information is required to confidently commit to the use of a material in ship structures. It has been KCI's assertion that the pultrusion process is able to make panels with properties that are at least equal to the properties of the baseline VARTM database, and perhaps better at larger panel widths. The ultimate objective of this Phase II effort is the careful process development and testing required to verify this critical assumption for DD(X) and other future ship classes incorporating composite structures. These data should allow designers to work with existing VARTM data when developing pultruded structures, avoiding the need for expensive regeneration of a database for pultrusion like the VARTM database. The program will include pultrusion and testing of glass/vinyl ester balsa cored panels, with and without edge details enabling rapid assembly of large ship structures. In the Option Phase, glass fiber laminates will be replaced by carbon to generate data on the ability of pultrusion to provide low cost, high stiffness structural panels.