Lean, green, and marine

Following the lead set by road and air transportation, sea vessels are turning to increased amounts of composite materials in their construction.

Over the past 50 years, polymeric composite materials have been used in a variety of applications on boats, ships, submersibles, offshore structures, and other marine structural applications. During that time, there have been many breakthroughs related to understanding how such materials can benefit the industry and how they can be tailored to work under different load scenarios.

A great deal of work has been completed by Professor R. A. Shenoi from the School of Engineering Sciences at the University of Southampton in the U.K. Despite these advances in the materials, Shenoi believes there is still a resistance to using and specifying polymer composite-based solutions for severe applications.