Innovative Pultruded Panel Designs for Ship Structures

Advanced composite material systems have shown great promise for satisfying the future needs of Naval combatants for the next century. Specific platform goals such as lighter weight, stealth, longer service life and reduced fabrication costs have required the use of multifunctional composite materials to meet these design requirements. The Phase I program defined in this proposal will show the technical and cost merit of fabricating US Navy composite topside structures by assembling pultruded panels with innovative structural geometries and integral assembly features. Recent advances in the pultrusion processing of high strength, damage tolerant fiber-reinforced composite materials will be applied to achieve the desired cost, weight, fire performance and structural performance goals. An Integrated Product Team (IPT) of organizations providing extensive experience in advanced composite product design, pultrusion of large panels and shipbuilding has been assembled to minimize risk.