Basic Design of High-Speed Riverine Craft Made of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer

The Small-Unit Riverine Craft (SURC) is a small high-speed vessel used by navies and marine corps in relatively shallow waterway environments, such as riverine areas or littoral coasts. In the past, SURCs have primarily been rigid-hulled inflatable boats constructed using composite materials such as glass fiber reinforced plastics. More recently, single-hull SURCs have been manufactured using aluminum for weight reduction. In this study, a Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) material was applied instead to examine its feasibility in the basic design of an SURC with a hull length of 10 m. The CFRP structural design was obtained using the properties of a marine CFRP laminate, determined in a previous study. Next, the designed CFRP SURC was modeled to confirm its functionality, then compared with existing aluminum SURCs, indicating that the CFRP SURC was 41.49 % lighter, reduced fuel consumption by 30 %, and could sail 50 NM further for every hour of engine operation. A method for reducing the high cost of carbon fiber was also proposed based on the adjustment of the carbon fiber content to provide the optimum strength where required. The data developed in this study can be used as a basis for further design of CFRP craft.