Composite Book

Can anyone recommend a good book or source of data and instructions for the design of small boat structures from composites. Coverage of both theory and practical examples would be appreciated. It should cover estimation of loadings, typical values of composite strength and suitable factors of safety. Good rules of thumb would be appreciated alongside first principals design. I have a technical background (Naval Architect) but my history on composite is highly theoretical (and covered a few years ago, a refresher would be useful) and defiantly not practical.

Having gone through the forums I have come across these already, but would appreciate any thoughts on their quality and usefulness from those that may have had experience using them in anger:

- Eric Greene's Book at http://www.marinecomposites.com/
- Eric Greene's articles at http://www.ericgreeneassociates.com/articles.html
- David Gurr's The elements of boat strength: for builders, designers, and owners

I would also be interested to know if anyone has purchased the SNAME Small Craft Papers CD and found the contents to be useful for small boat projects

Any and all thoughts welcome!

 

Two good resources:

Fiberglass Boat Design and Construction, by Robert Scott, Published by SNAME

Also, there is a USCG NVIC on Fiberglass construction that is quite good (and free)

 

Thanks Henry, I had looked at the book, but only found one review of it which wasn't favourable but didn't really explain why.

Any more input from anyone who has used this or other resources would be appreciated.

 

"The Gougeon Brothers on Boat Construction, -Wood and West System" has been useful to me. ISBN: 0-87812-166-8

It's a lot more than what you've asked for but contains some of what you ask for.

-Tom

 

Principals of Yacht Design, Larsson and Eliasson

See the various classification rules for loading calculations......

The Gibbs and Cox book, Marine Design Manual for Fiberglass Reinforced Plastics. This is far out of date regarding materials (get material properties from class rules, material suppliers, or Greene) but the general engineering procedures are still valid......

There's also a book put out by ATC, the Core-Cell Design Manual, which is quite useful for sandwich construction. Rob Mazza (C&C design) was one of the authors.

 

In the UK why not contact Imperial College London, Composite technology centre and ask for the reading list that they supply their Marine Composite Engineering students.

http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/compositescentre/