Materials and Design 32 (2011) 20912099

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Materials and Design

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Glassbasalt/epoxy hybrid composites for marine applications

V. Fiore a,, G. Di Bella b, A. Valenza a
a b

Department of Ingegneria Civile, Ambientale e Aerospaziale, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, 90128 Palermo, Italy Advanced Technologies Institute for Energy Nicola Giordano, National Research Council, Via Salita Santa Lucia sopra Contesse 5, 98126 Messina, Italy

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
The aim of this work is to evaluate the inuence of uniaxial basalt fabric layers on the mechanical performances of a glass mat/epoxy composite used for marine applications. Polymer composites, reinforced by glass mat (GFRP), and hybrid ones, reinforced by glass mat and unidirectional basalt fabric, have been produced by vacuum bagging technique. Three points bending and tensile tests have been carried out in order to evaluate the effect of number and position of basalt layers on the mechanical properties of the investigated structures. The experimental tests have showed that the presence of two external layers of basalt involves the highest increase in mechanical properties of hybrid laminates compared to those of GFRP laminates. In addition, a simplied numerical model has been proposed to better understand the inuence of unidirectional basalt on the specic mechanical properties of the laminates. The correspondence between the predicted numerical results and the experiments proves the accuracy of this model, which has also been applied to a real ship component. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 2 August 2010 Accepted 19 November 2010 Available online 25 November 2010 Keywords: A. Natural materials B. Laminates E. Mechanical

1. Introduction Basalt is an inert, naturally occurring, volcanic rock that can be found worldwide. Basalt-based materials are environmentally friendly and non-hazardous. The current production technology for continuous basalt bres is very similar to that used for E-glass manufacturing. The main difference is that E-glass is made from a complex batch of materials whereas basalt lament is made from melting basalt rock with no other additives and, as a consequence, with an advantage in terms of cost. Thanks to the simplicity of the manufacturing process lower energy is needed. Moreover, basalt bres have high chemical stability [1,2], they are non-toxic, non-combustible [3] and resistant to high temperatures [4]. Moreover, their specic mechanical properties are comparable with, or better than, those of E-glass ones (see Table 1). Over the last years basalt bres have begun to be used in several applications such as the manufacture of compressed natural gas (CNG) cylinders which have to be strong, lightweight and resistant to impact and temperature. These cylinders are usually built with metallic materials or lighter bres reinforced by polymeric materials (FRP). By using carbon bres as reinforcement the cylinder

Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 091 23863708; fax: +39 091 7025020.
E-mail addresses: vincenzo.ore@unipa.it (V. Fiore), guido.dibella@itae.cnr.it (G. Di Bella), valenza@unipa.it (A. Valenza). 0261-3069/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2010.11.043

maintains its durability and strength but the extremely high price and current shortage of carbon bres make basalt bres (stronger than E-glass bres and more available and cheaper than carbon ones) a good alternative [5]. Thanks to their excellent physical and mechanical properties, basalt bres can also be used as reinforcing material for concrete. Li and Xu [6,7] showed that the addition of basalt bre can significantly improve deformation and energy absorption capacities of geopolymeric concrete while there is no notable improvement in dynamic compressive strength. Liu et al. considered the possibility to use basalt bres in the eld of transportation. In a preliminary work [8] polymer composites reinforced by basalt fabric and glass fabrics were produced for tensile, compressive, exural and shear tests. A void content below 3% was measured for all the composites produced for the testing program and no signicant differences in Youngs modulus, tensile strength, exure strength, shear strength and compression strength were found between basalt composites and glass composites. As the use in transportation requires also environmental durability, another research work [9] from the same authors reported the tolerance of basalt-bre-reinforced polymer composites towards salt water immersion, moisture absorption, temperature and moisture cycling. Parallel tests were conducted for the corresponding glass-reinforced polymer composites. A 240 days aging in salt water or water has displayed a slight but signicant decrease in Youngs modulus and tensile strength of basalt composites. Freezethaw cycling up to 199 cycles did not change the

2092 Table 1 Glass and basalt bres properties compared. Property Density [g/cm ] E modulus [GPa] Tensile strength [GPa] Elongation to fracture [%] Specic E modulus [GPa/g/cm3] Specic tensile strength [GPa/g/cm3]
3

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The numerical model has been used also to simulate the behaviour of a ship component (i.e. a hull bulkhead).
E-glass 2.56 76 1.42.5 1.83.2 30 0.51 Basalt 2.8 89 2.8 3.15 31.78 1

2. Experimental setup 2.1. Materials and manufacturing All the composite structures have been made with a single lamination using the vacuum bagging technique. This method involves an initial hand lay-up phase and then the polymerisation of the matrix in a exible bag in which negative pressure is reached by a vacuum pump. Vacuum bag technology brings some advantages to the nal characteristics of composite laminate if compared to hand lay-up technology. All the laminates have been cured at room temperature for 24 h and then post-cured at 60 C for 8 h. The glass composite laminates (in the next GFRP) have been constituted by six layers of E-glass mat (randomly oriented bres, with areal weight of 450 g/m2 in a matrix of epoxy resin (i.e. SP 106) mixed with own hardener. The total average thickness of the laminates is 2.6 mm. The hybrid composites have been produced, starting from GFRP structure, replacing one or two layers of glass mat with one or two of uniaxial non-woven basalt fabric with areal weight of 400 g/m2 (see Fig. 1). As shown in Table 2, seven hybrid structures have been produced. 2.2. Mechanical testing 2.2.1. Flexural test These tests have been carried out according to ASTM standards [13], by using an Universal Testing Machine (UTM) mod. 3365 by Instron, equipped with a load cell of 5 kN. Particularly, exural tests have been performed on each realised structure, using ve prismatic samples with dimensions 20 96 mm. For all tests, the span length is equal to 80 mm and cross-head speed to 4.26 mm/min. 2.2.2. Tensile test Tensile tests have been carried out according to ASTM standards [14], by employing an UTM by Zwick Roell, equipped with a load cell of 600 kN, with a cross-head speed of 2 mm/min. For each structure realised, ve prismatic samples with dimensions 25 250 mm have been tested.

shear strength signicantly, but aging in hot (40 C) salt water or water made the shear strength of basalt composites decrease. The aging results indicated that the interfacial region in basalt composites can be more vulnerable to damage than that in glass composites. Sim et al. [10] studied the applicability of the basalt bre as a strengthening material for structural concrete members. Through various experimental tests for durability, mechanical properties, and exural strengthening, the authors demonstrated that, when moderate structural strengthening but high resistance for re is simultaneously sought, e.g. for building structures, the basalt bre can be a good alternative methodology among other bre (i.e. glass or carbon) reinforced polymer (FRP) strengthening systems. Basalt can replace asbestos in almost all its possible applications (i.e. insulation) since the former has three times the latters heat insulating properties. Furthermore, the bre diameter can be controlled in order to prevent uptake of harmful ultra-ne bres. Because of its good electrical insulating properties (higher than E-glass), basalt bres are also incorporated into printed circuit boards, resulting in superior overall properties compared to those of conventional components made of breglass. They are also employed in other electro technical applications such as extra ne resistant insulation for electrical cables and underground ducts. Because of its thermal insulating properties it has already been used as re protection in the form of fabrics or tapes [11]. In combination with its high specic strength, high resistance to aggressive media [12], and high electrical insulating properties, this occurs in special products such as insulators for high voltage power lines. In the marine eld, basalt bres are not applied and no research work can be found in the literature. Nevertheless, shipyards are now looking at basalt bres as a possible alternative to glass bres in the manufacturing of boats as they are economic and natural and, mainly, safe for the workers (i.e. their sizes are such that they cannot be inhaled). The aim of this work is to analyse the feasibility of use of basalt bres in substitution of glass ones as reinforcement of composite materials for nautical applications. For this purpose, composite structures reinforced by randomly oriented E-glass short bres (in the next GFRP) and hybrid ones (reinforced by both glass mat and unidirectional basalt fabric) have been produced by vacuum bagging technique. Three point bending and tensile tests have been carried out in order to evaluate the effect of this replacing on the properties of the GFRP structures. Finally, a simplied numerical model has been proposed to evaluate the inuence of basalt layers on the mechanical properties of hybrid structures, by employing a commercial code (i.e. Ansys). Experimental data have been compared with nite element analysis, conrming the good predictive capability of the numerical model. As a consequence, it is possible to foresee the behaviour of this hybrid laminates by using the physical and mechanical properties of the composite constituents as input data, thus optimising the basalt layer position for the design of complex composite structures.

Fig. 1. Unidirectional basalt fabric.

V. Fiore et al. / Materials and Design 32 (2011) 20912099 Table 2 Hybrid laminates. Sample No. of basalt layers Position of basalt Orientation of basalt Average thickness [mm] B1 1 Lamina 1 0 2.66 B2 1 Lamina 2 2.68 B3 1 Lamina 3 2.68 B4 1 Lamina 4 2.68 B5 1 Lamina 5 2.68 B6 1 Lamina 6 2.66 B16

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2 Lamina 16 3.19

forced by long unidirectional basalt bres; as a consequence the laminates are more stiff. In fact, for the typical load conguration, these bres are subjected to tensile and compressive stresses to guarantee a better resistance. Moreover it is known that in each section of the beam, the stress rxx increases moving through the thickness from the central zone to the external sides of the beam. A neutral axis exists in the middle zone of the beam while the layers in top and bottom side are subjected, respectively, to maximum compression and tensile stress. Thus, the higher increases of the modulus properties are obtained by replacing the external layers of glass mat (with long unidirectional basalt bres oriented towards x direction) since the
Fig. 2. Flexural modulus of the laminates.

3. Results and discussion 3.1. Flexural test In Fig. 2 the exural modulus of the composites is reported. It is possible to observe that: by replacing a layer of mat glass with uniaxial basalt, the stiffness of the hybrid structures increases compared to the GFRP laminates. Particularly, the B2 and B5 structures show an improvement of about 20% in the modulus while higher increases of the stiffness are obtained by replacing the external layers of glass mat (31% and 39% for B1 and B6 structures, respectively); the best improvement in the exural modulus are obtained by replacing both external layers of glass mat with basalt unidirectional ones: the B16 structure shows exural modulus equal to 19.5 GPa (about 118% higher than that of the GFRP laminate). These results can be explained considering both the kind of fabric used to substitute the glass mat and the stress rxx trend in a beam loaded in a three point bending mode. In this work the authors replaced one or two randomly oriented short glass bres/epoxy layers with correspondent layers rein-

Fig. 4. Delamination failure mechanism of B1B6 structures (exural test).

Fig. 3. Flexural strength of the laminates.

Fig. 5. Failure mechanisms of B16 structure (exural test).

2094 Table 3 Tensile properties of the laminates. GFRP E [GPa] B1 9.82 0.28 170.5 7.39

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B2 9.6 0.75 167.6 8.5

B3 10.2 0.67 168.6 11.6

B4 10.7 0.96 165.7 9.5

B5 10.1 0.55 169.6 7.8

B6 10.4 0.46 170.4 12.5

B16 14.1 0.81 210.3 20.7

r [MPa]

8.28 0.34 145.4 11.7

Fig. 6. Failure mechanisms of the laminates (tensile test).

maximum values of the stress rxx just occur in these layers of the composite structures. Moving from the external side to the middle zone of the beam, the stress rxx decreases and the replacement of the glass mat layer with uniaxial basalt inuences the specic performances of the structure in a slighter way [15]. The highest improvement in the modulus is obtained by replacing both external glass mat layers with unidirectional basalt ones because of reasons above mentioned (kind of replaced fabric and position of the basalt unidirectional layers) together with the presence of two layers of basalt UD (rather than one in other structures) that contribute to stiffen the hybrid laminate. About the exural strength showed in Fig. 3, it is evident that: the replace of a layer of glass mat with unidirectional basalt one causes signicant decreases in this property in terms of position of basalt layer. Particularly, for B6 structures a decrease of 23% in the exural strength is observed while for B4 laminate this property is lower of 33% than that of the GFRP laminate. All other hybrid structures have showed decreases between 23% and 33%; by replacing the two external layers of glass mat with unidirectional basalt ones (B16 structure) it is achieved an increase of the exural strength equal to 44%.

These results can be explained taking into account the failure mode evidenced: As shown in Fig. 4, the B1B6 laminates fail for a premature delamination at the interface between the basalt layer and glass mat one. Delamination is one of the most common and dangerous failure mechanisms of the composite laminates, caused by internal failure of the layers interface [16]. Due to the relatively low strength of the matrix, defects of the delamination type frequently occur in the structure made of composite materials. Most of these defects appear during the technological process (i.e. the causes including ungluing or shrinkage stresses). The process of defect formation continues in the stage of utilization of the structures under the effect of temperature stresses, local loads, impact and vibrations. Failure due to delamination of laminated composite usually begins from free edges, surface cuts, surface defects, unreinforced openings and other structural stresses concentration [17]. The mechanism of failure is determined by the distribution of macro- and micro-stresses which is a function of the structure of each layer and the stack as a whole. In the investigated case, this kind of failure can occur due to the adhesion between two very dissimilar layers (i.e. glass mat unidirectional basalt) which is lower than that shown between identical ones (i.e. glass matglass mat). In fact, regions of weakened interfacial adhesive contact on the interfaces of the components of the structure have an important effect on the character of local failure of composite materials. Moreover the mismatch of elastic properties between different layers of composite laminates, promotes the arising of interlaminar stresses in the free-edge region. These interlaminar stresses can lead to delamination failure for in-plane loads signicantly lower than those typically observed in these structures [18]. Further explanation can be due to the stress rxx gap established at the interface between two layers adjacent with different mechanical properties (i.e. isotropicorthotropic lamina), which can be evaluated by lamination theory [19]. For these reasons, delamination failures happen for the hybrid structures unlike GFRP ones that fail for tensile mechanism of the bottom layers. The exural stiffness of these hybrid laminates is not reduced by delamination before it reaches free edges of a structure. In fact, as the local thickness increases with the growth of delamination area due to separation between adjacent plies within the laminate, the global bending stiffness increases [20];

Fig. 7. Tensile curves of the laminates, glass and basalt.

Fig. 8. Comparison experimental/FEA.

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The hybrid laminates with both external layers reinforced by unidirectional basalt (i.e. B16) show both compressive mechanism in top layer (Fig. 5a) and tensile one in bottom layer (Fig. 5b). In this case delamination mechanism does not happen as the presence of two unidirectional basalt layers (rather than one in other hybrid structures) leads the stress rxx gap between the basalt layers and glass ones to decrement. The evidenced failure mode can explain the higher strength of these hybrid structures rather than those of the structures with one basalt layer (i.e. B1B6) that, as discussed above, fails for a premature delamination. Despite the evidence of the same failure mechanism these hybrid laminates show higher strength than that of GFRP laminates and this can be attributed to the presence of unidirectional basalt layers. 3.2. Tensile test In Table 3 the tensile properties of the structures realised are reported. It is possible to observe that: by replacing a layer of mat glass with uniaxial basalt, the tensile strength of the hybrid structures increases if compared to that of GFRP structure: the improvements vary between 14% and 17.3%, for B4 and B1 structures, respectively. As in the previous case, the highest improvement in this mechanical property is obtained by replacing each external layer of glass mat with a basalt unidirectional one: the B16 structure shows a tensile

strength equal to 210.3 MPa (about 45% higher than that of the GFRP laminate); hybrid laminates with a unidirectional basalt layer show increases in tensile modulus in a range between 16% and 29.2% for B2 and B4 structures, respectively. On the other hand, by replacing both external layers of glass mat, the tensile modulus of the B16 structures reaches 14.1 GPa, about 70% higher than that of the GFRP structure. Considerations similar to those discussed in the previous paragraph can be employed to explain these experimental results. Increases in the modulus of the hybrid structures are due to the replace of one (or two for B16 structure which, as expected, shows the highest improvement of this property) glass isotropic layer with unidirectional basalt ones. In fact, the bres, arranged along the load direction, give a higher stiffness to the structure. Unlike the previous case, the tensile strengths of hybrid structures are higher than that of GFRP one. This can be explained by considering the failure mechanism: for this loading conguration all tested structures fail for the bres tensile failure as evidenced in Fig. 6. The failure interests rstly the glass layers and then the basalt ones. This phenomenon prevails on the delamination failure that does not occur. The absence of this premature failure mechanism make the orientation of bres the most important parameter inuencing the mechanical properties of the laminates. Fibres orientation directly affects the distribution of load between bres and matrix: the contribution of the bres to the composite properties is maximum only when they are parallel to the loading direction [21].

Fig. 9. Maps for the tensile test: (a) B1; (b) B2; (c) B3; (d) B16 structures.

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4. Finite element analysis 4.1. Setup A 3-D numerical analysis has been conducted in order to simulate both the experimental tests, using a commercial nite element software (i.e. Ansys). The sample that has been used to simulate the laminate is constituted by a rectangle having the dimensions dened in Section 2. A shell element type (i.e. Shell99) has been used to build the model. The shells are a viable alternative to conventional solid elements for the modelling and analysis of laminate structures. These allow to simulate the behaviour not only of plane structures but also of complex curved proles in several elds; i.e. aeronautical (fuselages, wings), marine (hulls) and automotive (chassis) ones. In particular Shell99 is an 8-node, 3-D shell, layered element with six degrees of freedom at each node: translation in the nodal x, y and z directions and rotations about the nodal x, y and z axes. It is designed to model thin to thick moderately plate and shell structures with a side-to-thickness ratio of roughly 10 or greater. The Shell99 element allows a total of 250 uniform-thickness layers. In the real constants box of this element the following parameters have been added: number of layers (i.e. six), material (i.e. glass, basalt), thickness (i.e. 0.4 mm for the glass layer, 1 mm for the carbon one) and orientation (i.e. 0). The mechanical and physical properties of the laminates constituents have been obtained through theoretical study [19] and tensile tests on samples constituted by only glass or basalt fabrics. Fig. 7 reports the typical tensile curves of both materials, implemented in the nite element model. The sample has been constrained as in the experimental tests. Moreover, a displacement corresponding to the start of the inelastic trend, has been applied. Actually, the composite structure behaviour has been simulated by a numerical procedure performed in elastic regime and the post-elastic behaviour has been intentionally neglected; the aim is to obtain a simple and versatile numerical simulation, conditions required for an effective design methodology and, particularly, to characterize the composite structure in the elastic regime, where it exploits its work [22].

5. Results To validate the nite element model, a t between the numerical results, obtained from the simulations, and the experimental ones, obtained from the mechanical tests, has to exist. In particular, it is possible to observe that the elastic trend of the experimental curve matches well with the straight line, corresponding to the stiffness of the simulated structure (see Fig. 8). The experimental curve is processed as output of the Universal Testing Machine used to test the composites laminates whereas the stiffness of the structure is evaluated in post-processing, after the run phase of the simulation. As reported in the previous section, our interest has been focused only on the elastic behaviour and, then, this comparison conrms the good predictability of the model. Particularly, Fig. 8 reports the comparison experimental/numerical for the sample with the external basalt lamina in the tensile test. Similar results have been obtained for the other simulated structures. Fig. 9 shows the stress trends for the tensile test. To compare the results for different samples, same displacement (i.e. 1 mm) is considered. Fig. 9a is related to the laminate with the external basalt lamina (i.e. more thick one identied in the gure with B). The deformed

Fig. 10. Maps for the exural test.

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Fig. 11. Hull of a 85 ft ship.

Fig. 12. Bulkhead P1.

Table 4 Lamination sequence. Layer BDR 300/BDR BDR 300/BDR BDR 300/BDR PVC BDR 300/BDR BDR 300/BDR BDR 300/BDR Total 300/Mat 225 300/Mat 225 300/Mat 225 300/Mat 225 300/Mat 225 300/Mat 225 Thickness [mm] 1.21 1.21 1.21 40 1.21 1.21 1.21 47.26

Table 5 Boundary conditions. Side Top Bottom Left Right x 0 0 y 50 0 z 0 0 0

sample is characterized by a concavity on the right side, where there are the basalt bres. This behaviour is not observed in other hybrid samples (i.e. glasscarbon [15]). In fact, basalt is more resistant than glass in the load direction, but the difference is not elevated and, as a consequence, the stresses maps are inuenced also by the transversal properties that, obviously, are lower for the unidirectional basalt bres. Then, the laminates do not present tensile and compressive regions [15], but they are always subjected to a traction with a changeable stress. It is possible to observe that the basalt bres present several stress levels (i.e. 5080 MPa). The higher stress is reached at the basalt/glass interface, near the symmetry axis of the sample, where

there is also the highest stress gap that produces the failure in this zone. Fig. 9b and c are related to the laminate with the basalt lamina in position 2 and 3, respectively. The stress is not uniformly distributed, it decreases towards the concavity maintaining a constant value in the basalt bres. The sample B2 is characterized by a higher stress value concentrated in the external glass lamina placed near the basalt fabric. At the interface between these layers the failure occurs. On the contrary, in sample B3, the failure interests the more solicited glass bres. Finally, Fig. 9d deals with the samples with the external basalt laminas. In this case the concavity is not present because of the symmetry of the laminate. Moreover the stress is homogeneously distributed. Fig. 10 shows the stress trends for the exural test. To compare the results from different samples, same displacement (i.e. 1.5 mm) is considered. In a homogeneous sample [15], the stress

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Fig. 13. Stress along y direction.

distribution is symmetrical; i.e. compression stress on top side and tensile on the bottom. The neutral axis is the x symmetrical axis. In a hybrid composite the behaviour is different. Fig. 10 (B1) refers to the laminate with external carbon lamina on the top (i.e. more thick one identied in the gure with B). It is possible to observe that the basalt bres are subjected to compressive stresses, whereas the glass bres are subjected to tension. So, in this case the neutral axis is at the glass/basalt interface and it is identied with a dotted line. It is interesting to observe how the neutral axis (i.e. dotted line) slightly moves in the sample with the variation of the basalt lamina position. Particularly, this happens in the basalt layer for the congurations B2, B3, B4 and B5. In the congurations B1 and B6 it is in the glass layer near to the basalt one. In the sample B16 the stresses distribution is symmetrical.

5.1. Implementation in ship design In order to verify directly on a ship component the righteousness of both the proposed numerical model, as tool in ship design, and of the substitution of a glass fabric with a basalt one, a bulkhead has been modelled. Fig. 11 reports the hull of a 85 ft ship. The bulkheads are evidenced by the capital P. In particular, the bulkhead, called P1 (Fig. 12), has been studied. Table 4 reports both the lamination sequence and the thickness of the sandwich structure that constitutes the component. This structure consists of a common PVC foam core and two identical skins (i.e. with layers of glass mat and glass bidirectional fabrics with areal density of 225 g/m2 and 300 g/m2, respectively). These data have been implemented in the real constants of the numerical code.

Fig. 14. Stress along y direction within the thickness.

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Table 5 reports the boundary conditions for each side of the bulkhead as a function of the kind of the joining (overlamination or adhesion). Moreover, due to the symmetry, only a half of the sample has been analysed. Fig. 13 reports the stress along the y direction. The region higher solicited is in the corner between the left side and the bottom one. The simulations show that the substitution does not produce an evident change in the global properties of the component. The maximum stress is slightly higher (1.5%) in the sample with basalt bres. In order to see how the stress distributes among different layers, Fig. 14 reports it within the thickness of the section corresponding to the symmetry axis. Particularly, the core of the sandwich is not solicited, the bidirectional fabrics are characterized by the higher stress values, whereas the glass or basalt bres present a lower value. In the glass mat the stress changes between 260 MPa and 150 MPa, in the basalt fabric between 150 MPa and 90 MPa. Then, for the basalt the stress level is lower, and this is mainly due to the different kind of fabric, isotropic versus orthotropic. However, the range is reduced due to the unidirectionality of the bres for the same reason. On the other side (i.e. near the hull), in the glass mat the stress changes between 600 MPa and 50 MPa. The basalt bres show a reduced range, i.e. between 400 MPa and 100 MPa. Then, there is not only a compressive condition but also a tensile one. For the compression, the behaviour is similar to that observed previously. For the tension it is different. The basalt bres contrast better this kind of stress. 6. Conclusions In this work composite structures reinforced by randomly oriented E-glass short bres and hybrid ones, reinforced by both glass mat and unidirectional basalt fabric, have been produced by vacuum bagging technique and tested. Three point bending and tensile tests show that the presence of two external layers of basalt involves the highest increases in mechanical properties of hybrid laminates compared to those of GFRP laminates. These results highlight both that the basalt bres may be considered as a possible alternative of the glass ones in nautical application and hybrid structures could be used in the manufacturing of a boat. Finally, the nite element analysis, validated by the experimental results, shows how the stresses distribute in the layers of the sample. This model is a valid tool in ship design. The results ob-

tained in the simulation of a bulkhead are very useful to understand the behaviour of a naval component. References
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