GOWA, Indonesia Jan 8 2025/AFMRG/As a vast archipelagic nation, Indonesia possesses immense maritime and marine economic potential. At the heart of managing this incredible wealth is the highly dynamic shipping industry. Ships constantly operate in vigorous motion, facing massive stress fluctuations from heavy cargo weights, relentless wave loads—specifically hogging and sagging—and continuous engine vibrations. In Indonesia, nearly ninety percent of the active fishing fleet consists of traditional wooden vessels. While these boats are culturally and economically significant, natural wood is highly susceptible to rapid decay and aggressive wood-destroying marine organisms. This vulnerability forces local fishermen to perform incredibly costly maintenance and docking procedures every six months.
To combat this rapid material degradation, an increasingly common practice is laminating the wooden hulls with a resin-fiberglass composite layer. This robust fiberglass lamination successfully shields the vulnerable wood from harsh seawater and significantly boosts the vessel’s overall mechanical strength. However, a highly urgent engineering challenge has recently emerged. Resin-fiberglass is inherently rigid and highly inelastic. During long-term marine operations, it struggles immensely to adapt to the dynamic, flexing movements of the wooden ship construction. This structural incompatibility is severely exacerbated in tropical climates, where daytime temperatures frequently approach forty degrees Celsius. Consequently, the protective composite layers suffer from critical delamination, debonding, and structural breakage across the hull, deck, and other vital areas.
To uncover the exact root cause of this widespread material failure, a dedicated laboratory study was officially launched. The research team aims to rigorously test whether polyester composites inherently degrade in their physical and mechanical properties under escalating ambient temperatures. They will investigate if this material is fundamentally unsuited for the relentless dynamic fatigue loads of the ocean.
This crucial research initiative perfectly aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. By actively involving academic institutions, this progressive study heavily champions SDG 4: Quality Education, providing a hands-on, high-level scientific research platform for aspiring maritime engineers. Furthermore, solving this critical lamination failure is deeply connected to SDG 1: No Poverty. By engineering more durable, climate-resilient fishing vessels, we can drastically reduce the exorbitant biannual maintenance costs for local fishermen, directly securing their long-term livelihoods. Crucially, this endeavor beautifully embodies SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals. Tackling complex marine engineering challenges requires profound cross-border scientific synergy to implement lasting solutions.
DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.1012049