Approach
Starting from previous experiences, RAMSSES project, through the research developed within Patch Repair, will allow applying innovative repairing solutions to metal and composite marine structures. Also, reinforcement composite solutions will be developed to be applied over steel welds, in order to improve their in-service behaviour, preventing fatigue damage. This involves the study of three different demonstrator cases regarding composite overlamination techniques: the use of composite patches for crack repairing in structural details of a cruise ship; the use of overlamination techniques for repair and reinforcement of joints applied to a hull section for a large offshore vessel; and composite overlamination techniques will be studied and applied to reinforce welded HSLA steel joints, with the aim of improving their fatigue life.
Implementation
The technical plan was developed by a sequential process including five main steps:
- Selection of the most representative demonstrator cases related to each research line proposed.
- Selection of materials to be tested and establishment of materials test requirements to calculate and model the composite repair and reinforcement solutions.
- Establishment of related testing relevant for each demonstrator case (medium and large scale).
- Performing tests and selection of final materials combinations and manufacturing techniques according to the results previously obtained.
Aim
The resulting test plan consists of a considerably large matrix, with pyramidal order. The results obtained in each of the phases will allow to select the materials and techniques to be applied in the next one. In each of the stages the number of tests to be carried out will be reduced until reaching the final demonstrators testing phase.