Design, Verification, and Forensic Correlation of Composite Yacht Structures

Abstract

High performance marine composite structures are common in many competitive arenas. This paper highlights the lessons learned through analysis, testing and post-failure review of some of the composite structures used by Team Dennis Conner during the 2003 America's Cup. Materials were almost exclusively carbon fibre/epoxy prepreg laminates cured at elevated temperature and pressure. Specific research topics included resin/fibre content, full-scale testing of portions of the deck and rig and forensic analysis of the rig and hull. A side note includes a discussion of another post accident structural analysis. The primary structural analysis tool was finite element analysis, which was seen to be reliable. Computational fluid dynamics combined with historical on-board data were used to generate many structural loads.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 01, 2003
Accession Number
ADA575307

Entities

People

  • Paul H. Miller

Organizations

  • United States Naval Academy

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Ground and Sea Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Composite Materials
  • Composite Structures
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Engineering
  • Engineers
  • Failure Mode And Effect Analysis
  • Fibers
  • Forensic Analysis
  • Laminates
  • Materials
  • Materials Processing
  • Naval Architecture
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Test Methods
  • United States
  • United States Naval Academy
  • Verification

Readers

  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Reinforced Composite Materials
  • Software Engineering