Experimental analysis of polymer-composite coated steel components under quasi-static loading

In recent years, there has been new interest in understanding the mechanical failures of the polymer-composites used for fairing the hull and the superstructure of large vessels. There aren’t any background studies looking into the failures of these thick coated structures and this study is attempting to bridge the gap in research by studying the monotonic flexural behaviour of these structures to investigate the reasons for its failures. The objective is to study the monotonic flexural behaviour of three popular particulate composite materials used as coatings on megayacht vessels and obtain an initial understanding of their behaviour and interaction with the steel substrate. The methods presented are both analytical and standard testing procedures for the examination of the flexural stress-strain response of the thick polymer-composite coated steel specimens. The results of this work suggest that different failure mechanisms have been observed in the three examined coating systems. It has been shown that the experimental data suggested no significant interaction between the steel and the polymer-composite material. The findings suggest that it is possible to enlarge the design space of the polymer-composite coatings by reducing the applied thickness of the materials. Results also have shown that the presence of voids cause reduction in strength by 20% and reduction in deformation by 30%. The study concluded to a two-step methodology involving analytical and experimental methods investigating the mechanical response of composite polymers applied on hull and superstructure substrates which is presented for the first time in this paper.