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Photo Credit: Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding

Partners in the Realisation and Demonstration of Advanced Material Solutions for Sustainable and Efficient Ships () project are working to demonstrate a composite ship that weighs 40% less than a steel equivalent, offering considerable reduction in fuel consumption and emissions. 

Led by Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding (DSNS, Gorinche, Netherlands) and Damen Gorinchem (DSGo), in cooperation with InfraCore Co. (Rotterdam, Netherlands), Evonik (Essen, Germany), Airborne UK and TNO (the Netherlands Organisation for applied scientific research), a six-meter high, composite hull section was unveiled in July 2020, after three years of development. Titled, “Custom Made Hull for Offshore Vessel”, this is one of 13 demonstrators being constructed in the RAMSSES project. 

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Unique in this demonstrator project is that the whole cycle from product design, novel resin development, alternative fiber architectures, novel joining solutions, scaling up infusion technology, validation of large composite structures and risk-based design are being developed and tested under the auspices of the marine classification society Bureau Veritas (BV). In addition, the partners pioneered the capability to infuse thick laminates up to six meters in height that represent full-scale ship hull structures.

As described in CW’s Dec 2019 feature “Removing barriers to lightweighting ships with composites”, and in , there is currently an absence of approved guidelines for composite vessels. Regulations covering composite shipbuilding only cover vessels up to 500 tonnes — approximately 25 meters in length. RAMSSES aims to address this by scaling up the composite technology and capacity to design, produce and market composite vessels up to 85 meters long in full compliance with Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) and class regulations.

It will do this by validating the production process of large composite structures with economic improvement and key performance indicators for fire resistance, impact resistance and structural robustness. Furthermore, performing the assembly at DSNS has demonstrated the feasibility to construct composite vessels in shipyards traditionally dedicated to steel.

Now, impact tests on the RAMSSES demonstrator at DSNS in Vlissingen, Netherlands, are proving the resilience of composites to harsh marine environments. Multiple impact tests surpassing helicopter emergency landing loads were demonstrated on the RAMSSES hull shell and its composite helicopter deck.