Test and Evaluation Procedure of Foam Core Materials for Composite Ships

Abstract

Sandwich structures are general-purpose structures that can reduce the structural weight of composite ships. Core materials are essential for these structures, with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) foams being the most popular. These foam core materials are subjected to various tests in the development process, and must satisfy the performance requirements of several ISO and ASTM standards. Therefore, a procedure for evaluating the performance of foam core materials was proposed in this paper. In addition, prototypes were fabricated using a commercial PVC foam core product in accordance with the structural design of an 11 m fiber-reinforced plastic yacht. Then, a case study was conducted on the proposed evaluation procedure. The proposed procedure facilitates the understanding of the performance requirements and evaluation of core materials used in composite ships and is expected to be utilized in developing core materials for marine structures.