New Materials for Warships include carbon and glass fibre, aluminium, syntactic foam, copper and graphene

To date, different types of carbon and alloy steels have proved to be the main materials of choice for naval ship construction around the world. While composites, titanium and aluminium alloys have been utilized for making hulls of smaller vessels such as patrol boats, these materials do not meet the structural requirements of the larger vessels. However new materials are being developed that offer higher performance and improved functionality.

The research project, (Lightweight Structures at Sea) LASS-C, looked at replacing the superstructure of cruise ship Norwegian Gem in composite. The major step forward in materials science means that it is now technically possible to construct ships for national and international traffic in carbon or glass fibre, while meeting classification societies’ safety requirements. This, together with new design approaches for the use of aluminium in vessels, is the result of a research project that has attracted widespread international interest, coordinated by SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden.The main challenge has been to demonstrate how ships can be built using lightweight materials without compromising with fire safety, says Tommy Hertzberg, project manager and fire research scientist with SP.

The payback period for the extra structural cost if you took the fuel savings gained from the weight reduction was 5.9 years, but the payback from income from the extra cabins you could build for the same overall weight was 2.5 years. Likewise the payback on cargo ships is quicker if you consider the potential extra payload rather than the fuel savings.

Indian Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman commissioned in Oct 2017, the indigenously-built anti-submarine warfare stealth corvette INS Kiltan at the Eastern Naval Command here. It is India’s first major warship to have a superstructure of carbon fibre composite material resulting in improved stealth features, lower top weight and maintenance costs, it said.

British scientists and engineers have released designs for a high-tech Royal Navy vessel, offering a glimpse of navy’s advanced future warships. They suggested that warship in 2050; dubbed Dreadnought 2050 shall be a tri-hull design made of an ultra-strong, acrylic and graphene that can be turned translucent to give all-round visibility.