On criteria of minimum thickness of plating for ships in composite materials

Abstract

The paper discusses the selection of the minimum thickness of the plating for ships made of composite materials. The reasons for restrictions are considered as the prevention of filtration and protection from contact damage. It has been established that there are two fundamental approaches: the actual thickness and the mass of the reinforcement. With the examples of ship accidents, the limitations of existing approaches to minimum thickness requirements are considered. The practice of classification societies on thickness regulation is analyzed, the approaches and the resulting thicknesses of bottom and side shells are compared, and also the ratio of inner and outer skin thicknesses. The influence of exceeding the minimum thicknesses is noted on the example of the interceptor boat project. For Russian classification societies, proposals have been formulated to improve the requirements.