Commercial Ships

Commercial Shipbuilders Leverage High Performance Composites with Fibersim™ Software

Composite materials have been used in the commercial shipbuilding industry for several decades because they do not corrode like metals, structurally behave well, and age much better than wood. Composites are found in key structural applications throughout the industry, including fast ferries, rescue boats, and service craft.

Typically, commercial shipbuilders have relied on lower priced fiber reinforced plastics, such as glass fibers and polyester resins. Cost effectiveness has kept the industry from moving to the higher performance and more expensive materials found in aerospace, such as carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP). However, in recent years, commercial shipbuilders have shown a growing interest in adopting a more productive and sophisticated composite engineering process so they can leverage high performing composite materials. They have begun to evaluate the engineering tools that have proved successful in other industries, such as Vistagy’s Fibersim composites engineering software.

Fibersim enables a composite ship part to be manufactured as it was designed. This seems like a given, yet if you talk to any design or production manager, you will find that it’s not the case. Changes are often made after the design release to make sure the part can be manufactured. These changes are typically made on the fly, decided on the shop floor, leaving no record or traceability back to the design office. In the end, it is difficult to know for sure how different the real part is from the approved design.

By contrast, Fibersim enables the engineer to greatly reduce the number of changes required throughout the development process. It allows the user to rapidly record all the design changes. By creating a complete and detailed 3D composite design of the parts and assemblies early on, all the laminate, ply, and core information provided to manufacturing is consistent and frozen in minute detail.

Traditionally, the process of figuring out how to lay up the fiberglass fabric or tape inside or over the mold is not part of the designers’ responsibilities. It is left to the manufacturing technicians to come up with the appropriate ply shapes and ensure that there will not be any manufacturing problems, such as wrinkling or bridging of the material in curved areas. When such a manufacturing defect cannot be avoided, weakness may ensue that can trigger cracks and fatigue failure.

Fibersim provides a means to simulate the draping of composite plies and assesses the “producibility” of the laminates prior to manufacturing. It makes it possible for the engineer to know how the plies will conform to the mold before any physical prototype is built. The ability to simulate before manufacturing provides great savings and enhances the competitiveness of any commercial shipbuilder.

Learn more about Fibersim.