Reinforced Plastics  Volume 60, Number 5  September/October 2016
com
Now is the time to make the change from
metal to composites in naval shipbuilding
Django Mathijsen
For shipbuilding, fiber reinforced plastics have clear advantages over metals, especially in military ships.
Still, the navies of the world have not massively changed over to composites yet. There is a sense of
urgency though, especially in Dutch and Scandinavian shipbuilders, that now is the time to really make
that change happen. We talked to experts from Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding in Vlissingen, the
Netherlands, and learned about the advantages of composites, but also about the challenges that have to
be overcome.
The Damen group has a long history producing ships in compo-
sites, going back as far as the 1960s. In the early 1980s for example
they were already producing fast, light composites vessels. ‘‘But
then aluminum enabled cheaper production, so Damen turned
completely to aluminum,’’ Joep Broekhuijsen says. He is the
general coordinator research and development at Damen Schelde
Naval Shipbuilding (www.damennaval.com) in Vlissingen, the
Netherlands (Fig. 1).
Since the turn of the century however, the Damen group is
investing heavily in composites again. And since a few years, they
FIGURE 1
A Damen interceptor flying over the waves: light and fast, thanks to
composites.
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have a composites shipyard in Antalya, Turkey, producing light,
fast ships of up to 25 m in length. ‘‘These are mostly interceptors:
fast little boats which are carried on board of the mother ship for
giving chase,’’ says Laurent Morel, technical specialist composite
structures at Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding. ‘‘We are produc-
ing a series of seventy of them in a factory-like way at a rate of
about one a week. We also have two water buses in production
there: catamarans for passenger transport. And in all our crew
suppliers and offshore supply boats for example, the whole super-
structure is already made from composites.’’
Damen builds a whole range of ships. And they have the
ambition to go larger with composites ships. ‘‘We have a 45 m
design on the drawing board and we want to go to 75 m within 5
years,’’ says Morel (Fig. 2).
Damen uses thermoset resins and they try to stay with glass fiber
as much as possible. ‘‘In smaller ships we do use hybrids with
aramid and carbon fibers,’’ Morel adds. ‘‘The 11 m long interceptors
are made of carbon fiber. The waterbuses are glass fiber. And we are
working on a 45 m long carbon fiber ferry. That structure is more
critical. Most composite ships are not engineered for strength but
frequency. Depending on the ship’s type you sometimes have to go
to a different material to achieve that frequency. The ship’s propel-
ler excites the structure, so the structure has to have a different
frequency, preferably above the propeller’s frequency.’’
Extra advantages for composites in the military
Of course the most obvious advantage when changing from steel
to fiber reinforced plastics is weight reduction, which can be used
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FIGURE 2
Molding a composites hull.
to reduce fuel or carry more payload. ‘‘In commercial ships it turns
out the best strategy is to take more payload because then you earn
back your investment more quickly,’’ Morel says. ‘‘In cruise ships
payback times of two to three years are achievable. In general,
ships have a life expectancy of 25–30 years.’’ So the life cycle and
running cost of a composites ship are lower than that of a steel
ship, also because it requires less maintenance. Unfortunately, that
does not work as a selling point yet as Morel explains: ‘‘The client
has two separate budgets: one for purchase and a different one for
maintenance.’’ So the client will generally decide which ship to
buy, still based on purchase cost, not on life cycle cost.
The lighter weight of a composites superstructure can also lead
to a lower center of gravity for the ship, increasing its stability,
meaning: reducing the risk of the vessel capsizing. But according to
Morel the main reason for going back to composites for these ships
below 25 m in length is because they are now cheaper to produce
than aluminum ones: ‘‘That is because they were reengineered to
enable modular design and series production. We can now for
example put together different superstructures with the same
molds.’’
For military applications a ship or superstructure made of
composites has the additional advantage of a lower signature, as
for example a lower radar cross-section. This is especially the case if
you compare it to a lightweight metal structure. A metal ship’s
radar cross-section can be lowered by giving it a clever shape with
flat, angled surfaces, but according to Broekhuijsen that is not so
easy: ‘‘If you want to build in aluminum or thin steel, the welding
processes will lead to warping, leaving the ship less esthetic and
also more visible on radar.’’
Last but not least, the underwater magnetic signature of a ship
made of composites is lower, which is especially worthwhile for
mine countermeasure vessels (MCMV’s). MCMV’s are larger than
25 m. And the Dutch navy is supposed to be replacing their
MCMV’s soon. ‘‘That is currently a main focus of ours,’’ says
Broekhuijsen. ‘‘Can we scale up the manufacturing technology
of those small composites boats so we can build larger platforms if
the demand comes from the Dutch defense organization?’’
(Fig. 3).
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FIGURE 3
The Alkmaar-class MCMV’s, like this Zr. Ms. Urk, developed from 1974, has
been in service in the Dutch navy since 1983. Its 52 m long, glass fiber
reinforced polyester hull was quite revolutionary at the time. Which
concept is going to replace it?
Mine countermeasures vessels
Damen is conducting a lot of research into the next generation
of MCMV’s. For that, composites vessels of up to 75 m long are
being considered. ‘‘That is a rather large composites platform,’’
Broekhuijsen says. ‘‘Something that has not been done very
often yet.’’
But the defense organization has not ordered those new
MCMV’s yet. They are dragging their feet because there are two
different strategies in dealing with mines. The defense community
has not decided on a clear preference yet.
The first strategy is to have an MCMV with a low magnetic
signature (i.e.: a ship made from composites) that can detect mines
before they detect it. Also, the instruments on board have to be
made of nonmagnetic materials or locally equipped with a
degaussing system, so you can get close to the mines without
triggering them.
The other strategy is to have an ordinary, steel mother ship that
always stays outside the minefield area and sends in small un-
manned vessels to track the mines down. Those unmanned vessels
are planned to be 10–20 m long and made of composites. They will
have to carry quite a lot of payload in systems for charting the
minefield.
‘‘The defense community is waiting to see how fast the devel-
opment of those unmanned systems will be,’’ Broekhuijsen says.
‘‘So the cost-performance comparison is very difficult to make at
the moment. We want to be able to make a good comparison and
support the defense organization as soon as the request comes, so
we can show them which manufacturing techniques and materials
are worthwhile.’’ It is also not clear if it will truly be possible to
guarantee that a mother ship in service will be able to stay clear of
the minefield under all circumstances. ‘‘We try to be ready for both
strategies,’’ Morel says. ‘‘But for me the challenge is clear: the
purchase cost for the composites vessel has to be at least as low as
the cost for the steel hull version. That is the only way to stop the
debate.’’
The loads that navy ships have to be able to withstand are of a
different order than those in commercial ships. MCMV’s for
example have to be able to take an unintentional mine detonation.
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FIGURE 4
Demolding a composites hull.
The Netherlands even requires that their MCMV’s can survive
multiple detonations before having to limp back to port for inspec-
tion. ‘‘Tearing is detrimental to a ship’s hull,’’ Broekhuijsen says.
‘‘The trick is to prevent a real tear from forming, taking away the
watertight integrity. Steel can be deformed very much before it
tears. With composites you will see damage in the form of delami-
nation, absorbing a lot of energy as well. But you also want a ship to
be able to take an explosion at a greater distance a number of times
without receiving damage forcing you to return to port. So you
have to be able to take a few shock loads without delamination,
staying inside elastic parameters in both steel and composites’’.
Tests with explosives were performed at TNO (the Netherlands
organization for applied scientific research) in Rijswijk, the
Netherlands, on sandwiches, and laminates with and without
stiffeners.
Rivets, bolts or adhesives?
For joining parts, in all composites ships as well as in ships with
steel hulls and composite superstructures, Damen prefers to use
adhesives as Broekhuijsen explains: ‘‘Welding is of course not
possible for joining composites to steel and that is the technology
we now use a lot. Rivets are an outdated technology in our field.
And we scarcely use bolts, because that is a heavyweight and labor
intensive solution. Using bolts in a composites superstructure
would be detrimental to the weight reduction you hope to achieve.
The bolts would be in the order of 20% of the weight of the
composites superstructure.’’ (Fig. 4).
The Americans have recently tried bolting up a composites
superstructure: the USS Zumwalt DDG-1000 is a futuristic looking,
180 m long, guided missile destroyer, designed specifically to have
an ultralow radar cross section. ‘‘According to a press release they
had to add an extra radar reflector in ordinary training operations
because otherwise it would lead to collisions with other ships,’’
Broekhuijsen says. But three rows of bolts were used in the super-
structure, adding weight and cost. The plan to build 32 of these
Zumwalt class destroyers was scrapped, limiting the production
run to only 3. As if to add to its futuristic feel, the name of the first
captain assigned to the Zumwalt was James A. Kirk (not to be
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confused with the fictional Star Trek hero James T. Kirk). Pundits
have also been joking that the ‘‘1000’’ in the Zumwalt’s name
probably stands for the number of bolts used. Yes, it may look
funny for such a futuristic looking vessel to use so many bolts, but
Morel points out a caveat: ‘‘You have to differentiate operational
and military loads. For operational loads, like wave loads, a bonded
joint is more than strong enough. Military loads however are a
different matter, especially the inside blast scenario: the detona-
tion of a missile inside the structure. For that we may have to revert
to using bolts. That is currently being researched. And that may be
the reason why the Americans used bolts instead of adhesive
bonds: because they probably had weapon-induced loads in their
design requirements. In explosions we are talking about strain
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rates a thousand times greater than in operational loads. That
requires a different approach: you have to put the structure into a
membrane state, not a bending state. Compare it to a soap bubble:
that is uniformly loaded in tension, enabling a lightweight struc-
ture to take heavy loads. We have already made a composites blast
bulkhead that can take an anti-ship missile. Geometrically it is just
a flat sandwich plate, but you have to tinker with the fiber
orientations and joints to push the loads into the right direction.
After the blast you can see that soap bubble shape in it. The most
crucial part to get right is the joints, because the bulkhead covers
multiple decks.’’ (https://www.eda.europa.eu/what-we-do/
activities/activities-search/vulnerability-reduction-technologies-
for-large-maritime-composite-structures-(convince)). They are
cooperating with TNO structural dynamics, who have a big knowl-
edge base on weapon-induced effects.
Many materials are sensitive to strain rate: if you deform them
quickly they have a different elasticity and a different strain at
break. That is important to take into account if you are making a
structure that has to withstand highly dynamic loads. In compo-
sites that behavior depends on the specific material combination
used.
So using adhesives instead of bolts saves weight and cost if you
are joining materials that cannot be welded. ‘‘In fact, we also use
adhesives quite a lot in our conventional metal process – where
we basically weld everything we can – in the outfitting stage,’’
FIGURE 5
Damen made these GFRP air ducts for air-conditioning and heating on the
superstructure of the Karel Doorman, a 205 m long support ship of the
Dutch Navy. The ducts were added because the original air intakes were
too close to the exhaust.
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Broekhuijsen adds. ‘‘Because after you have painted and rust
proofed the ship, there are sometimes changes to the design
requiring an extra base to be fixed somewhere. Then adhesive
bonding is worthwhile. Because if you were to weld it, you would
have to remove the paint and rust protection of the panel and you
would burn the paint on the back of the panel, all requiring
expensive repair work.’’
Plastic parts are also bonded to metal in the outfitting stage. In
most cases those bonds do not have to take out high loads, so then
the part can simply be bonded on top of the paint. ‘‘If a bond is
required to the primary ship’s structure, the paint would be the
weakest link,’’ Broekhuijsen says. ‘‘So then we do remove the paint
and bond directly to the metal itself.’’ (Fig. 5).
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Bonding metal and plastics
Damen uses adhesive bonds to join the whole top superstructure
to the bottom hull for example in those 25 m long ships. Doing
that in larger ships, like the MCMV’s, poses one big challenge.
‘‘Like in the aircraft industry, if the vehicle becomes larger, the
requirements are stricter because more people will get on board
and the safety and environmental risks are greater,’’ Broekhuijsen
explains. ‘‘So then, a classification bureau defining the require-
ments has to scrutinize the whole structure. For the small ships we
can bond the superstructures without classification approval. But
for the larger ships we have to convince a lot of institutions that
the bond is durable. We have to show its safety in case of fire. And
we have to make a risk assessment of what can happen and what
the options are to reduce those risks.’’
Damen is running a number of research projects to take stock of
all those risks and their mitigation solutions. ‘‘Not a lot is known
yet about the aging behavior of a bond in the maritime environ-
ment,’’ says Broekhuijsen. ‘‘In aerospace, bonding is applied as
well, but we are faced with totally different circumstances in use
and in processing of the adhesive. Our environment during bond-
ing cannot be as well controlled as in aerospace production. We
have a large hall which is usually not heated. And we produce all
around the world. In Indonesia the humidity is higher than in the
Netherlands. And the circumstances change every season. So they
are more difficult to control, and more to the point: we do not
want to control them too much, because then the cost of produc-
tion would be too high. So we are looking for adhesives which are
more tolerant, also in regards to the thickness of the bond. Not
only are the bond lines thicker in shipbuilding than in aerospace,
the build tolerances are higher as well. We are busy researching the
impact of all those factors and how we can control and mitigate
them in the most efficient way. And we are researching how we can
monitor the bond in service, so we also have the risk control
option of being able to intervene if we find an anomaly before the
bond fails.’’
They used to cooperate closely with an adhesives manufacturer
for this but Broekhuijsen explains that they found that to be too
restrictive: ‘‘It limited our choice of adhesive too much. There are
many different types of adhesives on the market. Many of them
already have an approval for maritime applications. We want to
have the freedom to choose from all available options. So now we
are following a different strategy: we are defining the essential
parameters for the adhesive in our specific application. And we are
also determining the tests required to prove that the adhesive has
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Reinforced Plastics  Volume 60, Number 5  September/October 2016
the essential characteristics. As a result we will get a test matrix that
we can give to different suppliers. It is their task to fill the test
matrix with results and quote a price. Then we can select which
one is the best for our application. Part of that matrix is already
available, but it will be extended and refined. We just started the
durability research project with the Delft University of Technolo-
gy. We expect to need three to four years before the whole matrix is
finalized.’’
‘‘We developed the composites to steel bond in a European
project together with a Swedish ship yard,’’ Morel adds. ‘‘The
Swedish yard is already applying it on naval ships, because naval
ships do not need a classification approval. But Damen prefers to
have commercial approval even for its military vessels. The biggest
challenge is to get the simulations and models approved, especial-
ly the FEM models of the adhesive which has to operate in a
temperature range of 65 to +80 8C. Ships have to be able to sail
worldwide, from the arctic to the tropics. To be able to guarantee to
the certification bureau and the governing bodies that the adhe-
sive bond can stand up to that with models and simulations is the
most difficult thing to realize. We know that it works perfectly: it
has been tried and tested. But we cannot prove it yet. We are now
in a project with a dozen partners, led by TNO. It is set to take two
years and should result in a classification approval for us. There are
Ph.D. students looking at things like pre-treatment to get a good
bond, the corrosion behavior of steel, and the degradation behav-
ior of the adhesive bond during operational life.’’
Damen is involved in numerous projects with partners like
TNO, Heerema, Delft University, the University of Cambridge,
and others: from fundamental research projects (investigating the
durability of bonded joints as well as its dynamic behavior) to joint
industry projects to be able to transfer results to pragmatic design
models for bonding in real world applications.
Biggest challenge in full composite MCMV’s
Morel explains that the biggest challenge in developing large
composites vessels, like the new generation of MCMV’s, is to
get a flag state approval on equivalent fire safety: ‘‘Regulation
considers steel to be a noncombustible and composites a combus-
tible material. That perception alone already makes it necessary for
us to cover all our bases, although in most situations a composites
ship turns out to be safer in a fire than a steel ship. A composites
structure conducts heat badly, making it inherently safer in a small
fire. In a bigger fire a ship has to stay structurally load-carrying for
60 min. That is a different ballgame than in other sectors, like
aviation or rail transport.’’
Out at sea, it can take a lot of time for help to arrive or for the
ship to reach the nearest port. And things are even worse for
military ships. Commercial ships can be evacuated in a dangerous
situation. ‘‘In the military that is not an option,’’ Morel says. ‘‘You
have to stay on board and continue fighting. Depending on the
amount of damage a certain amount of functionality has to
remain. In a bullet hit, everything has to keep functioning. In
the heaviest hit you still have to guarantee enough evacuation
time. But there are situations where a ship will burn for days and
the crew stays on board to continue fighting. And in the military
we have to face heavier fires: hydrocarbon fires, for example due to
a helicopter crash or an un-exploded missile. So the temperatures
can be higher in navy ships.’’
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There are various ways to implement fire safety. Fire insulation
is probably the easiest, but it comes with a weight and cost penalty.
Having said that: steel has to be insulated as well: ‘‘It does not
burn, but it conducts heat very well,’’ Morel explains. ‘‘So if you
have a fire somewhere on board a steel ship which is not insulated,
the whole steel structure could get searing hot very quickly.
Composites do not have that problem.’’ You can also apply
intumescent paint: that will swell up when it is exposed to heat,
creating a protective barrier on the laminate.
And it is possible to use special resins and fibers like for example
basalt and phenol in the laminate itself. ‘‘Although we have
experience with them we do not prefer that,’’ Morel says. ‘‘A ship
has to perform more tasks than resist fire. And phenol for example
works well in a fire, providing you can produce it completely water
free, which is very difficult to do. If only a little bit of water is left
inside the resin, it will evaporate in a fire, causing the laminate to
burst apart after which it will still catch on fire.’’
Damen applies a balanced solution in which a number of these
techniques are used. And the firefighting system architecture is
used in the risk assessment as well. Nobody has been able to get a
risk assessment for a composites ship, with fire safety equivalent to
a steel ship, approved yet. But Damen has been cooperating
internationally on these fire analyses for six years. ‘‘We have
now finished that risk assessment and should be able to get the
first stamp of approval from a flag state this year or next year,’’
Morel says.
Comparable purchase cost
Damen is also cooperating in projects to get the cost of large
composites ships down to the level of steel ships. ‘‘In the whole
composites community even state of the art production methods
are too labor intensive,’’ Morel explains. ‘‘That labor component
has to be reduced. So we are looking at automated techniques
where possible. We pull out all the stops in order to cut production
costs.’’ He is confident that it is possible to get the cost of large
composites ships down to the level of steel ships: ‘‘Providing you
also use the inherent function integration advantages of compo-
sites,’’ he adds. ‘‘Composites do not corrode, allowing you to
reduce the amount of paint you have to apply. And you can for
example use their higher thermal insulation to scale back the
heating and ventilation system. If you do all that, I’m convinced
that it is possible to produce a composites ship for the same price as
a steel one. We are assessing all the structural properties of com-
posites versus steel: very basic stuff but it has to be done meticu-
lously before you can use it in your system design.’’
Morel explains that there are two ways of designing a ship:
‘‘Prescriptively, so following the regulations. Or you can follow
first principles and then prove that your innovation is safe. That
requires a lot of homework, because the sector is very conservative
and the material properties are very different, statically as well as
dynamically. But it is the only way to use the material optimally.
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FIGURE 6
An important breakthrough for naval composites: a fiber glass reinforced
polymer blast bulkhead.
We see disruptive technology coming. I see composites super-
structures in America, India, Singapore, Russia, and Italy: every-
body is working on them. We try not to copy what everyone else is
doing. That would be pointless. We are trying to go one step
further and be disruptive ourselves: with automated, large scale
production. Nobody is working on 75 m long composites ships
yet.’’
Morel is confident that composites will make the breakthrough
in shipbuilding: ‘‘We now have composite structures that can stop
the same weapon effects as steel structures: they can contain the
internal detonation of an anti-ship missile. That took twenty years
to develop and is an enormous step forwards. This is one of the last
chances to make composites happen. And not just in my sector.
Thirty years ago we all thought that composites were going to
explode. Ten years ago again. We are one of the few ship yards
substantially investing in them. But we feel we are almost there. So
we are pressing on.’’ (Fig. 6).
E-LASS (www.e-lass.eu/), the European network for lightweight
applications at sea, is a free network stimulating lightweighting at
sea. It shares knowledge and lobbies to the International Maritime
Organization and other institutions (for example, with this state-
ment on the use of fiber reinforced plastics for shipbuilding: http://
www.e-lass.eu/en/Documents/E-Lass%20support%20letter%
20for%20IMO%20FRP%20work.pdf). There are 240 companies
and institutions from 28 countries involved in it, spanning the
whole sector: universities, material suppliers, classification
bureaus, experts in composites fire safety, shipbuilders. . . ‘‘Every-
one can apply,’’ Morel says. ‘‘It started four years ago as a European
network and we want to keep it European. But we also have
Japanese, Australians and Americans coming to our conferences
now. Other continents are looking at Europe because Europe is
ahead and E-LASS represents that.’’
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