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Composites: Part A
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compositesa
Defence Science and Technology Organisation, Department of Defence, 506 Lorimer Street, Fishermans Bend, Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia
Thales Australia, Garden Island, NSW 2011, Australia
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 25 July 2008
Received in revised form 10 October 2008
Accepted 6 November 2008
Available online xxxx
Keywords:
A. Carbon bre
B. Adhesion
Ship repair
a b s t r a c t
The carbon bre composite overlays (patches) installed on a Royal Australian Navy frigate to inhibit the
recurrence of superstructure fatigue cracking have been in service for 15 years now. The service life these
composite repairs have accumulated is now sufcient for the ship to have gone through several complete
maintenance cycles. The ship has also had a major upgrade/modication programme and been exposed
to a full range of environmental conditions while it has served on its many active deployments. This
paper examines the success of this repair methodology in the light of ship owners expectations. These
expectations have two major aspects which are addressed here.
The rst is the effectiveness of the composite repair in restoring the strength and function of the damaged structure, the cost and timeliness in effecting that repair and the disruption incurred prior to and
during the repair.
The second aspect to determining the success of the composite repair is more long term. This comprises
the durability and repairability of the composite repair itself, including the availability of clear, objective,
and documented criteria for inspecting the repair in future years and authorising its continued service.
Furthermore, the ease with which the repair itself can be removed and replaced to facilitate subsequent
maintenance work or modications to the parent structure, and the ability to survey the parent structure
behind the repair all make up this second facet. Unfortunately, this aspect is less obvious to the repair
team but quickly becomes apparent to the ongoing custodians of the structure. These custodians are also
the ones most likely to be authorising the repair method to be used for similar damage in the future and
so they are important stakeholders to keep on side.
This paper reviews the service history of the carbon bre overlays since their installation and comments on both the short and long term success of the repair methodology.
Crown Copyright 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Steel and aluminium ships, like any other dynamically loaded
metal structure, will always have the potential to fatigue and crack.
The preferred method for dealing with this is by prevention, with
careful design seeking to keep stresses below the fatigue strength
through the use of thicker material, expansion joints, etc., and prudent detailing eliminating stress concentrations by rounding corners, staggering openings, etc. Yet, in spite of these efforts, over
the life of a vessel we can anticipate some cracking, particularly
for high performance vessels such as warships.
The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) has a rigorous programme of
structural inspections for their ships managed by the Centre for
Maritime Engineering (CME) who maintain a centralised database
of all defects, including cracking and rectication work. Effective
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +613 9626 8252; fax: +613 9626 8409.
E-mail address: Ivan.Grabovac@dsto.defence.gov.au (I. Grabovac).
1359-835X/$ - see front matter Crown Copyright 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.compositesa.2008.11.006
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Port
overlay
Starboard
overlay
Weld at
Frame 196
ck
02-de
ck
01-de
Fore
k
in dec
Ma
Fig. 1. Composite strengthening of ship structure, (a) HMAS Sydney leaving the Sydney harbour, (b) location of composite overlays on 02-Deck.
Edge seal
CF composite
1200
5000
5200
Edge seal
GRP layer
CF composite
Aluminium 02-deck
Adhesive bondline
Fig. 2. (a) Overlays components and dimensions (mm) plan view, (b) Overlays cross-sectional view.
Resin Matrix
R-
Si
O
M
O
O
Si
O
O
M
Si
O
M
R
O
O
O
Si
O
M
Si
O
M
Aluminium Surface
Fig. 3. Schematics of surface preparation and bonding to metal, (a) surface prole after grit blasting, (b) chemical reactions of organo-functional silane and (c) completed
metalresin bond.
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surface and allowed to evaporate at ambient or elevated temperature for about 2 h. Once the solution wets the surface, the silane
molecule reacts with a receptive site on the metal surface. Concurrently, the silane also polymerises in reaction with other silane
molecules thus creating a hydrophobic, cross-linked lm which
inhibits corrosion of the metal. The nal step of silane reaction
with resin matrix was completed once the resin is used to form
adhesive interface (bond-line). This was shown to be a selective
process as not all types of silanes produce strong and durable
bonding with the resin matrices available to composite industry,
Fig. 3b [4,6]. In this instance, a methacrylate silane solution was
found to be the most suitable adhesion promoter when used with
vinyl ester resin. This was determined following a series of Boeing
wedge tests [11] to assess bond durability of specimens exposed to
hot/wet (50 C, 96% RH) and simulated marine (35 C, 5% salt fog)
environments.
After preparation of the adhesive interface and following an
overnight resin cure at ambient temperature, the nal product is
shown in Fig. 3c. The surface bonding is not only achieved by silane
coupling, which combines resin and metal, but also the resin that
permeates and wets a large surface area of metal which upon resin
cure provides elaborate mechanical interlocking. When protected
from external elements such a bond should provide good performance over an extended period of time.
3.2.2. Adhesive interface
The adhesive interface or bond-line is composed of modied
vinyl ester resin [4,12] and scrim material used to control thickness
uniformity. The interface is usually close to 1 mm in thickness
which is sandwiched between the carbon overlay and aluminium.
Its principal role is to provide durable adhesion, transmit local service loads and provide physical barrier preventing direct contact of
carbon bres with aluminium deck thus avoiding possible galvanic
corrosion. Furthermore, the resin dielectric property was also a
pre-requisite to achieve resin post-cure by low-voltage (100 V),
electrical heating process [12]. The adhesive bond-line thickness
of about 1 mm was found suitable for this purpose since its breakdown voltage exceeds 18 kV/mm.
3.2.3. Carbon bres
The carbon bres that provide overlay strength and thus reinforcement to the structure are good thermal and electrical conductors. When used on metal structure such as ship, provisions for
avoiding electrical contact must be made to avert galvanic corrosion in presence of an electrolyte (i.e. seawater). Otherwise, the
aluminium deck will preferentially corrode since its electro-chemical potential ( 0.70 to 0.90 V) lies at the anodic or active end of
galvanic series [13].
3.2.4. GRP layer
The glass reinforced plastic (GRP) layer does not contribute to
overlay strength and is intended solely for protection of the underlying CF composite against marine environment, impact and abrasion. The GRP layer was also bonded to aluminium deck at the
edges which gave a sacricial area all round, Fig. 2a. This excess
GRP material provides some edge resistance to water ingress but,
as shown in service [7], this interface required additional sealing
for long-term resistance against exposure to the marine
environment.
3.2.5. Edge seal
The seal around overlay perimeter was produced using a twopart elastomeric sealant. This was found suitable for providing
long-term protection against water ingress at the deck/adhesive/
GRP interface. Early in the trial the edge sealing provided by a coat
of paint alone was found to be inadequate. The GRP layer especially
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Table 1
Cause of action
Type of damage
Method of
inspection
Location
Inspection/repair size
Probable cause of
defect
Work done
Comment
Length
of
service
A1.
April
1993
Recurrence of fatigue
cracking in
aluminium
deck plating.
02-Deck, Port
Structural parent
structure
02-Deck, Port
5m1m
Reinforcement of
aluminium alloy
superstructure with CF
composite overlay
Installed by DSTO
Research Team
Start
A2.
April
1993
Recurrence of
fatigue cracking in
aluminium
deck plating. 02-Deck,
Starboard
Structural parent
structure
02-Deck,
Starboard
5m1m
Reinforcement of
aluminium
alloy superstructure with
CF composite overlay
Installed by DSTO
Research Team
Start
A3.
February
1994
Service/maintenance
Nil
C-Scan,
ultrasonic aw
detector
02-Deck, Port
and Starboard
5m1m
Inspection of composite
overlays
No problems identied
on either Port or
Starboard overlay
inspected by DSTO
10
Months
A4.
October
1995
Service/maintenance
Non-structural, small
edge-located disbonds
C-Scan,
ultrasonic aw
detector
02-Deck, Port
and Starboard
5m1m
Inspection of composite
overlays
No structural problems
identied on either Port
or Starboard overlay
inspected
by DSTO
2 Years,
6
months
A5.
January
1996
Partial de-bonding
from
deck plating, all
around
Non-structural
composite overlay
02-Deck, Port
and Starboard
Perimeter, of both
overlays: length: 12 m
width: 0.2 m
Combination of
marine, mechanical abrasion
and impact effects
Enhanced edge-sealing
system developed and
applied by DSTO
2 Years,
9
months
A6.
November
1997
Service/Maintenance
Nil
Portable CScan
02-Deck, Port
and Starboard
5m1m
Inspection of composite
overlays
No problems identied
on either Port or
Starboard overlay,
inspected by DSTO
4 Years,
7
months
A7.
January
1998
Mechanical damage
to
the composite overlay
by
a high pressure water
jet equipment
Structural composite
overlay
02-Deck, Port,
inner side midlength
0.9 m 0.6 m
Repairs to restore
functional
integrity of CF composite
overlay
4 Years,
9
months
A8.
May 2000
Service/maintenance
Nil
Visual
02-Deck, Port
and Starboard
5m1m
Inspection of composite
overlay
No problems identied
on either Port or Starboard
overlay, inspected by DSTO
7 Years,
1 month
A9.1
July 2001
Structural composite
overlay
Visual
02-Deck, Port
outer side, midlength
Combination of marine,
mechanical abrasion and
impact effects
8 Years,
3
months
A9.2
August
2002
9 Years,
4
months
A10.1
November
2004
Nil
11 Years,
1 month
A10.2
July 2005
Visual and
acoustic
method
12 Years,
3
months
A10.3
November
2005
A11.
June 2007
Inspection of damage
completed, repair scheme
developed for November
2005
All repairs completed by
a contractor under DSTO
supervision
No problems identied
on either Port or Starboard
overlay. Inspected by Thales
(Australia)
Service/maintenance
Nil
Visual
Approximately 2 m 1 m
02-Deck, Port
and Starboard
02-Deck, Port
and Starboard
5m1m
12 Years,
7
months
14 Years,
2
months
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Location of
composite overlay
Fig. 4. Typical maintenance work activity on 02-Deck.
renewal. This decision was based on the fact that there were too
many small areas of edge disbonds scattered around each of the
12 m perimeters. Certain steps in the course of the repair are shown
in Fig. 6. The steps (ac) relate to the removal of damaged material,
surface preparation and edge reconstruction, respectively. Fig. 6d
shows the sealant material being introduced for the rst time to seal
the edges at the interface between the GRP sacricial edge and the
aluminium deck plate. This step was not originally planned during
the overlay installation process in April 1993. However, after about
2 years in service the surface paint coating alone was found inadequate to prevent edge degradation, therefore this additional protection was developed and applied in all subsequent repairs. The
sealant material is a commercially available, two-part polysulphide
elastomer. In laboratory evaluation this product was found to adhere
well to both the aluminium surface and the composite overlay. It also
displayed good resistance to seawater, various hydrocarbon products, solar radiation and could easily be applied, cured and painted
as required. The nal material lay-up and conguration is shown
schematically in Fig. 7.
Initially, the GRP edge resistance to cracking and adhesion failure
was overestimated because unrealistic reliance was placed on surface paint coating. On the 02-weather-deck, which is exposed to all
elements, the coating was found to crack after about 1218 months
allowing water ingress and causing it to ake from the deck surface.
The other contributing factor was a large difference in thermal
expansion between the GRP and the aluminium deck, e.g. the thermal expansion coefcient for E-glass bre = 5 10 6 K 1 and aluminium = 23 10 6 K 1. The magnitude of this problem appears
to be reduced by using the polysulphide sealing applied directly to
aluminium plate and the GRP edge area, Fig. 7. Normally, two coats
are applied and between them a glass tape is inserted for tear resistance. If no damage is made to this most peripheral part of the composite overlay, the edges remain protected for a long time
irrespective of the condition of paint coating. However, that was
not always the case when mechanical interference was involved,
see below, Sections 4.2.24.2.4.
4.2.2. Structural repair January 1998
The rst structural repair of damage to the Port composite overlay was successfully carried out in January 1998. The damage was
made during the scheduled maintenance work on the 02-Deck
Fig. 5. Examples of degraded edges due to effect of environment and mechanical abrasion.
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Fig. 6. Non-structural repair January 1996, (a) removal of degraded material, (b) preparations for edge repair, (c) edge reconstruction and (d) sealed and restored edge
conguration.
when using water jet equipment for removal of the surface paint.
The rotary tool consisting of water jet nozzles operating at high
pressure (approximately 276 MPa) accidentally cut through the
thickness of composite overlay. In the process, the load-carrying
carbon plies were severely affected and required repair. Some of
the repair steps undertaken including the magnitude of the damage are shown in Fig. 8 and a schematic diagram with all the materials and geometry used in the repair of composite overlay is given
in Fig. 9. The damage to the overlay was a through-thickness type
therefore the repair procedure required a total restoration from the
metal surface to the GRP protective layer. The carbon bre plies
were replaced ply-for-ply in a step-wise ush repair mode whereby each step represented a 4-ply thickness. A total of six steps were
made (only three steps are shown in Fig. 9). The size of replacing
plies was made to t the area prepared for the repair.
The damage caused to Port overlay by mechanical equipment
was purely accidental. During the ship maintenance work involving surface recoating, it is a normal practice to employ high efciency equipment for cleaning a metal surface of remaining
Primer coat
Edge seal
reconstruction
CF Composite
25
25
50
100 - 150
Fig. 7. Overlay edge reconstruction schematic diagram (carbon bre crosssectional view).
surface paint and other contaminants. When the overlays were initially installed on the 02-Deck, the perimeter of each was marked
with a 25-mm wide white border frame. On subsequent deck recoating this marker, indicating overlay edge, was omitted therefore
no clear visual guidance existed warning the operator of changing
surface conditions. Regarding the repair shown in Fig. 9, this method was primarily developed for efciency and in-eld practicality.
The modied step-wise technique used 4-ply steps instead of only
1-ply as commonly employed in aerospace repairs involving the
thin skin composite structures. This approach signicantly reduced
the time of repair and made it easier especially in this case involving through-thickness damage to a 25-ply CF laminate. This method of overlay repair proved fully effective in service and it did not
require any further attention.
4.2.3. Structural repair August 2002
Early in July 2001 the RAN reported water ingress into the compartment below on the Port side through the deck plating which
was located near the overlay centre part. This fault was considered
unusual since there was no visual mechanical damage to the composite overlay or the deck plating to allow water passage. On closer
inspection of the fault area, a length approximately 200 mm of
composite boundary was found de-bonded from the deck, Fig. 10.
It was establish that this failure was attributed to three major factors: (i) The boundary seal strip at the fault area was missing, presumably removed at some stage during the service of the deck
area, and covered with coats of paint. (ii) As shown in Fig. 10 (inset)
this composite region lies next to a depression in the deck topography where water tends to accumulate. (iii) Failure to notice the
damage and carry out repair to the sealing strip. It should be mentioned, however, that during the earlier repair in January 1996
(Section 4.2.1) all edges were sealed and care was taken especially
in this area to prevent water affecting the overlay.
A lack of seal would most probably initiate edge de-bonding
from the deck as experienced during the rst 2 years in service.
In this case, it was not known for how long this edge was without
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Fig. 8. Structural repair January 1998, (a) water jet cleaning tool bottom view, (b) damage made to composite overlay, (c) preparations for repair and (d) reconstruction of
carbon plies.
GRP protective
layer
Scrim
Step length=100 mm
Step height=4 plies
CF Composite
Adhesive
Ply-for-ply composite
reconstruction
Metal plate
Fig. 9. Schematic diagram of composite overlay repair (half-thick composite shown only side view).
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Fig. 12. Crack in the deck plate found under overlay in 2001.
Fig. 11. Structural repair August 2002, (a) initial cut-out, (b) nal preparations for overlay repair, (c) reconstruction of carbon plies and (d) vacuum bag consolidation and
resin cure.
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Fig. 13. A collage of damage type suffered by overlays on Port and Starboard side, (a) delamination and abrasion on Port side, (b and c) damage to overlays by various abrasive
tools, (d) location of life raft atop Starboard overlay, (e and f) cuts through overlay thickness to weld life rafts anchor point and feet to deck plate.
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Fig. 14. Structural repair November 2005, (a) a summary of all damage inicted
to overlays on Port and Starboard side, i.e. D1D11, (b) repair strategy for both
overlays.
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Composite
thickness, (b)
Taper angle, ( )
a
b
CF Composite
Deck Plating
l
Ply 'drop-off' length, (l)
Fig. 15. Schematic diagram of overlays end taper (side view).
Table 2
Overlay repairs cost and other details (excluding labour).
Overlay installation/repair
Damages or
injuries
Repair duration,
(persons)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
*
Overlays installation
March/April 1993
Repair January 1996
Repair January 1998
Repair August 2002
Repair November 2005
None
21 Days (5)
None
None
None
None
10 Days (2)
3 Days (2)
4 Days (2)
8 Days (3)
34 K
<3 K
5 K
NA*
Deck (Port and Starboard). For example, the 600 mm crack found
on the Starboard side, Fig. 17, was re-welded and, following overlay installation to strengthen the area, has not reappeared since
Fig. 16. Navy non-skid coating applied to overlay (insets: appearance after service
exposure).
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Fig. 17. Deck crack discovered in 1993 before installation of Starboard overlay.
Fig. 18. Starboard section of 02-Deck, with relative locations of Ship Alterations 86 and 146, deck cracks and CF overlay.
known as Ship Alterations (S/A 86 and S/A 146). These were carried
out around 1985 and 1991, respectively, with the purpose of
addressing the cracking problems around Frame 196 by inserting
new thicker plate(s) into the structure.
Crack review of the Port section produced different results. For
the same period, the database shows 2 cracks (S54/S65 and S86)
registered in May 2001 and located underneath or adjacent to
the overlay, Fig. 19. These are also thought to be associated with
welding for S/A 86 and S/A 146. (Note the two numbers, i.e. S54
and S65, represent two separate surveys of the same crack. The
S54 is the number of the initial survey which identied the crack
prior to the removal of partly de-bonded Port patch. The S65 is
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the number of the subsequent survey once access to the metal substrate was made available during the patch repair.)
The crack S86 which is located outside, but close to the overlay,
was reported as static (not growing) for the period 19952005. In
2006 it was rectied by grinding out and re-welding.
More signicant is the crack S54/S65 that occurred directly
underneath the de-bonding of the Port overlay. It is noted that
this occurred not only along a weld but at a point where there
are three changes in the thickness of the underlying plate, i.e.
(i) 9.519 mm, (ii) 9.512.7 mm and (iii) 12.719 mm. These
changes of thickness manifest themselves on the upper side of
the plate where the overlay is tted. The consequent draping
of the carbon plies over such undulation results in the overlay
having to resist longitudinal loads through bending normal to
its plane as well as tension, Fig. 20.
This combined loading case was extensively covered during
the materials evaluation phase [5,6] for which no problems were
identied even when the loading was double that measured in
Fig. 19. Engineering drawing of 02-Deck; Port, showing USN modications, location of cracks and outline of CF overlay.
Weld
CF Overlay
T
T - Difference in thickness between plates
Fig. 20. Schematics and moment diagram of combined loading on overlay at the weld region between two plates of different thickness.
Table 3
RAN ships, FFG-7 Class in active service.
Vessel
1.
2.
3.
4.
HMAS
HMAS
HMAS
HMAS
Sydney
Darwin
Melbourne
Newcastle
Date commissioned
In patch location
January 1983
July 1984
February 1992
December 1993
95
39
83
70
1 (S54/S65)
2 (D5, D32)
1 (M78)
0
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7. Conclusion
The trial conrmed that the carbon bre patch/overlays meet
the ship owners short and long term expectations for a ship repair
and are a useful addition to the repertoire of the Naval Architect
faced with cracking problems for a ship in service.
In reviewing the trial against the ship owners short term expectations the following points were addressed:
The carbon patch was effective in restoring the strength and
function of the damaged structure. During their 15 years of service the only crack that reappeared under the patch occurred
where the bonding of one of the patches had failed. This problem was addressed and neither the de-bonding nor the crack
has reappeared. In addition the FE and laboratory work done
in support of the trial clearly show the effectiveness of this
method of repair.
The cost and timeliness in effecting the carbon patches was demonstrated during their installation and subsequent repairs. The
labour required was at the low end of what could be expected
of a comparable aluminium repair and the material costs, though
not large, have since dropped considerably. The materials
required are available commercially and the lead times required
for organising the repair are no longer than that required to organise materials and qualied welders for an aluminium repair.
There were no additional disruptions to other activities as a
result of installing or repairing the patches. The grinding out
and re-welding cracks prior to the carbon patch installation
required all of the precautions and permits associated with
17
hot work onboard a ship. The installation of the patches themselves did not require any of the restrictions, safety precautions
or shielding of equipment required for aluminium welding. The
only requirements are ensuring adequate ventilation and
extraction when performed below decks and restricting access
during the patches installation and ambient cure overnight.
The ship owners longer term expectations were met as follows:
Durability The life of the patches to date, 15 years on a
weather-deck, clearly shows that the RANs need for a durable
repair can be met.
Repairability of the composite patch itself During the trial the
carbon patches have been successfully repaired on four
occasions.
The availability of clear, objective and documented criteria for
inspecting the carbon patch repairs Such criteria are well documented in the technical literature and this was used in the trial
for planning the repairs.
The ease with which the patches can be removed Paradoxically,
the source of the damage experienced by the carbon patches
during their 15 years of service is one of the things that made
the trial a success. The patches can be easily removed with
the abrasive blasting equipment used in preparing the substrate
for painting. Unless attacked by such equipment or an angle
grinder, correctly tted patches appear able to remain in service
indenitely.
The ability to survey the structure behind the repair Looking at the
cracks that have manifested themselves near or under the
patches during the trial, it can be reasonably presumed that any
cracks under the patches will be unlikely to grow unless there
has been some failure of the edge seal leading to de-bonding.
Traditional management of temporary repairs that included
drilling holes at crack tips, re-welding the same crack repeatedly,
or adding some arbitrary bracket to reduce a stress concentration
is just not adequate. The lead time required for a Class-wide modication demands that effective interim measures are available
that relieve crews of the disconcerting sight of crack growing in a
bulkhead or deck-head while at sea. The carbon bre overlay is
now a solution that works if applied correctly.
If carbon bre patches were endorsed as an approved temporary
repair then the required service history would be quickly built up to
access their suitability as a permanent repair. This could be
achieved by close collaboration between the Vessel Owner, the
Technology Developer and the maintenance contractor which, if
pursued, would lead to higher performance and more cost-effective
patches/overlays than those used in this trial. In the longer term,
the requirement exists for industry to develop an enduring capability in the technology in order to facilitate its future implementation.
Acknowledgements
Authors wish to acknowledge the following stakeholders,
whom the information presented in this paper is of interest:
DSTO Management, for their continuing interest and support to
the project.
Thales Australia Naval, for long-term dockyard assistance and
overlay inspections.
FFG System Program Ofce RAN, for the review of the
manuscript.
The Centre for Maritime Engineering, for access to their survey
database and their interest in the outcome of this long-term
trial.
Please cite this article in press as: Grabovac I, Whittaker D, Application of bonded composites in the repair of ships structures A ...,
Composites: Part A (2009), doi:10.1016/j.compositesa.2008.11.006
ARTICLE IN PRESS
18
Thales Australia
Senior Hull Maintenance Ofcer, Centre for
Maritime Engineering Department of Defence
Chief Engineer, Amphibious & Aoat Support
System Program Ofce Department of Defence
Platform Systems Manager, FFG Upgrade Project,
FFG System Program Ofce Department of
Defence
Head, Surface Ship Structures, DSTO
Research Leader, AMSS, DSTO
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Composites: Part A (2009), doi:10.1016/j.compositesa.2008.11.006