New materials development in the naval construction industry

Abstract

In naval construction and generally, in the maritime field it is very important to take into account which sort of materials are used for each specific kind of vessel, which materials are used to repair these vessels after having sailed for long miles. As well as, it is crucial to reduce the consumption of the necessary energy in order to go from one destination to another, whether it is in a commercial purpose vessel or in a pleasure boat. Todays’ materials still face many hurdles as the maritime environment is highly damaging and the sources of energy to most vessels all around the world is fuel. Nevertheless, this source of energy emits pollutant gases to the atmosphere and it is an exhaustible source, too. Because of this fact, it is specially important to find new materials that are lighter, less expensive, less pollutant and also inexhaustible sources that can provide the maritime field with the properties and features required. With this project I intend to investigate if in a near future it would be possible to build vessels with less expensive materials, more environmentally friendly and with the same or higher efficiency. In order to find materials with high-quality properties it is required to study the matter from an atomic and molecular level with nanotechnology. Because of that, in this project firstly there is an approach of what is nanotechnology and how it works, what new materials approach and which materials are being studied for the near future. And finally, using all this knowledge to see how this science and technology could help the shipbuilding industry to overcome nowadays’ hurdles in the field.