JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - Supplement lnnovation report - 26

JEC WORLD 2018

Composite cargo decks on a 7000 cars Car Carrier
Uljanik Group has delivered ( July,
2017.) a Car Carrier vessel "SIEM
Cicero" with a large quantity of composite structure introduced for cargo
decks.
The big novelty is that the three uppermost decks, of total thirteen decks,
are constructed from GRP sandwich
panels, saving considerable weight
high up in the ship and reduced fuel
consumption and CO2 emmission.
Compared to the traditional steel decks
the weight savings for the Uljanikdesigned decks is 25% or 200 tons,
for equal production cost. PCTCs of
this type usually incorporate ballast to
counteract their high center of gravity,
to fulfil stability requirements.
So, reducing structural weight high up
in the ship gives a double benefit.
The result is a reduced fuel consump-

tion of 4.5 % or an increased payload
up to 800 tons.
It is understood that the Uljanikdesigned vessel has the lowest fuel
consumption per CEU of any PCTC in
its class.
In a conventional steel design a cargo deck is designed with steel deck
plating stiffened by transversal web
frames and longitudinal stiffeners. In
the Innovative deck structure design
at Uljanik newbuilding , composite
structure is implemented at Decks 10,
11 and 12, covering the area of total
12600 m2.
The structure arrangement consists of
steel supporting grillage and composite sandwich panels (GRP, with PVC
core, vacuum infused), total 1043 pcs.
The laminates are of glass fiber reinforced polyester with a fiber content of

Optimised lightweight carbon fibre bogie frame
This project, which has received a £1.25 million grant from the RSSB, will deliver a composite bogie frame concept that addresses
the barriers that have prevented commercial
adoption. It will be the first project to develop a carbon fibre bogie frame and the first to
include recycled material.
The project aimed to deliver at least 50%
weight saving over metal frames through
the use of carbon fibre materials; the current
design delivers at least 70% weight saving.
The mechanical properties of the materials
are tailored to provide integrated suspension
and steering functionality, reducing the lateral forces on rail tracks by up to 40%, and also
providing a 20% reduction in overall train
fuel consumption. This tailoring is achieved
by using a combination of approximately
80% recycled carbon fibre and 20% prime
carbon fibre. By achieving this tailored flexibility using a lightweight composite con-

struction, vertical loading will be reduced as a
consequence of lower axle weight, which will
further reduce track damage. The potential
affordability issues associated with the use of
composites are addressed through the utilisation of low cost recycled carbon fibre materials and a cost-effective processing technique
suitable for the manufacture of components
of this size and complexity.
The project team is now manufacturing and
testing critical design details and manufacturing processes. Output from these tasks
will be used to optimise the design after
which full scale prototypes will be built and
tested.
In addition, an integral structural performance monitoring system has also been
developed to measure performance of the
demonstrators during testing, which will
also have the capability to be deployed as an
in-service health monitoring system.

jec composites magazine / N° 119 supplement - Innovation Report

Finalist: Uljanik JSC (Croatia)

about 74% by weight.
The core consists of two densities of
PVC. Each panel has 22 lashing holes
for cargo securing during operation
at sea. Composite panel connection
to supporting structure is designed as
flexible bolt connection.

Railway
Finalist: ELG Carbon Fibre Ltd (UK)
Partners: Alstom Transport UK (UK),
Magma Structures (UK), University
of Birmingham(UK), University of
Huddersfield (UK)

This condition monitoring system will be an
important aspect of satisfying the rail regulator regarding the use of composite materials and provide rail operators with valuable
in-service data previously unavailable.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - Supplement lnnovation report