Steel truss/composite skin hybrid ship hull. Part I: Design and analysis

A hybrid ship hull made of a steel truss and composite sandwich skins was investigated. The steel truss was designed to carry the bending loads, whereas the composite skins were designed to carry shear and water pressure loads. A 142 m ship hull, similar to a destroyer in terms of size, weight and speed, was designed, finite element analyzed and optimized. Loads were essentially based on the regulations of the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS). A small scale model will be developed and tested in the next stage to verify the design.