Developing liquid acrylic resin-based composites for marine renewable energy and ship building applications

复合材料已经在小型娱乐和高性能船舶工业中使用多年。由于其重量轻，减振性能，耐腐蚀性，高冲击强度，设计灵活性，制造成本低，易于维护和维修，因此在船舶工业中得到广泛接受。近年来，轻型复合材料在建造大型海洋结构中的应用越来越多。热熔复合材料，通常用于建造船只，本质上是不可回收的，它们在更大的海洋结构中使用不是一个合理的解决方案。这将增加环境负担，是不可取的。这些问题也给复合材料在海洋可再生能源结构（如潮汐和风力涡轮机叶片）中的使用带来了问题。我们需要开发下一代可回收的轻质复合材料，这对环境来说是一个更可持续的解决方案。新推出的液态热塑性丙烯酸树脂基复合材料是此类应用的潜在候选者。这种液态树脂的加工方式与造船和风力涡轮机叶片工业中使用的传统热固性树脂相同，具有高机械性能，但与热固性复合材料不同，它是可回收的。这种可回收性可以为处理报废复合材料的主要问题提供答案。用液态热塑性树脂基复合材料建造大型海洋结构是一项具有挑战性的任务。该项目将重点开发用于海洋和船舶建造以及可再生能源结构的液态丙烯酸树脂基复合材料。这将涉及制造丙烯酸基复合材料并研究其物理和机械性能。这也将包括在干燥条件下和海水浸泡后研究纤维/基质界面。将对这种新型复合材料系统的焊接/连接和修复潜力进行研究。耐火性能将与爱丁堡大学消防安全工程实验室合作进行研究。最后，将与工业一起制造一个演示器。

Composites have been used for many years in small recreational and high-performance boat industries. Their widespread acceptance in the boat industry is due to their light weight, vibration damping properties, corrosion resistance, high impact strength, design flexibility, low fabrication costs and ease of maintenance and repair. The use of lightweight composite materials in constructing larger marine structures is increasing in recent times. Ther-mosetting composites, the usual candidates for constructing boats, are non-recyclable in nature and their use in larger marine structures is not a justifiable solution. This will add the environmental burden and is not de-sired. These issues are also causing problems for the usage of composites in marine renewable energy structures such as tidal and wind turbine blades.We need to develop next generation of recyclable, lightweight composite materials that would be a more sustain-able solution for the environment. Newly introduced liquid thermoplastic acrylic resin based composites are a po-tential candidate for such applications. This liquid resin is processed in the same way as the traditional thermoset-ting resins used in boat building and wind turbine blade industries, features high mechanical properties, but is re-cyclable unlike thermosetting composites. This recyclability can provide an answer to the major issue of the treat-ment of end-of-life composites.The construction of large marine structures with liquid thermoplastic resin based composite materials represents a challenging task. This project will focus on potential development of liquid acrylic resin based composites for ma-rine and ship building and for renewable energy structures. This will involve manufacturing acrylic matrix compo-sites and studying their physical and mechanical properties. This will also involve studying the fibre/matrix interface in dry condition as well as after seawater immersion. There will be investigations on the welding/joining and repair-ing potential of this new composite system. The fire resistance property will be investigated in collaboration with Fire Safety Engineering Laboratory at the University of Edinburgh. Finally, a demonstrator will be manufactured in conjunction with industry.