Composite materials in dynamic shipboard structural mounts

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the viability of replacing traditional metal structural and machinery mounts with padding made of composite material. The two types of padding or isolation materials are represented by steel and CFRP (carbon fiber reinforced polymer). Machinery and instruments in ships are often mounted for two main reasons: they create unwanted vibrations and they need to be isolated from shock and external vibration. In order to analyze this problem, the machinery or instrument plus its padding are modeled as a mass-spring-damper system. The results show that CFRP generally works better for vibration isolation, while steel works better for shock isolation.