ROWING BOATS CONSTRUCTION

NAPOLI 2009
 Filippi
ROWING BOAT CONSTRUCTION & REPARATION Engineering

Summary

- HOW A ROWING BOAT IS THOUGHT

- HOW A BOAT IS MADE

- RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT IN ROWING BOATS

- WHAT WE NEED FOR REPARATION OF ROWING BOATS

ROWING BOATS CONSTRUCTION

NAPOLI 2009
 Filippi
HOW A ROWING BOAT IS THOUGHT Engineering

The research during the time from wood to carbon

fiber

• Research to increase stiffness

• Study about phenomena linked to rowing movement

• Improvement of hydrodynamics actions

• Development of system ergonomics

ROWING BOATS CONSTRUCTION

NAPOLI 2009
 Filippi
HOW A ROWING BOAT IS THOUGHT Engineering

Example: how a boat was born

• Research of market inputs and delineation of design hypothesis

• Calculation, with Kimè, of all possible hydrodynamic solutions
• Solutions fulfillment with commercial CFD
• Design of the complete mould
• Realization of the model with CNC
• Realization of the mould with infusion technique
• Production of the new boat

ROWING BOATS CONSTRUCTION

NAPOLI 2009
 Filippi
HOW A ROWING BOAT IS THOUGHT Engineering

Research of market inputs and delineation of

design hypothesis

• Rowers' average weight

• Target analysis of rowers' typical movements

• Analysis of the force

• Design hypothesis

• CAD realization of various hypothesis

ROWING BOATS CONSTRUCTION

NAPOLI 2009
 Filippi
HOW A ROWING BOAT IS THOUGHT Engineering

Calculation, with Kimè, of all possible hydrodynamic

solutions

• Mesh building of the various concept shells

• Values insertion into the input file

• Data processing

• Results view for each shell

• Choice of best solutions (4-5)

ROWING BOATS CONSTRUCTION

NAPOLI 2009
 Filippi
HOW A ROWING BOAT IS THOUGHT Engineering

Design of the complete mould

Realization of the model with CNC
Realization of the mould with technical infusion
• Draw completion with necessary components to create the final
boat design

• Add necessary draw elements to complete the model that will be

the basis of mould creation

• Send the complete design to CNC that produces the mould

model

• Once got the model, is the moment to make the mould (infusion
system)
ROWING BOATS CONSTRUCTION

NAPOLI 2009
 Filippi
HOW A ROWING BOAT IS THOUGHT Engineering

The technical infusion

• One of the most innovative technical at produce boat is the

“infusion”

• This method use vacuum bag to produce in one step the mold.

• The vacuum created into the bag brings resin into lay up so to
impregnate every parts.

ROWING BOATS CONSTRUCTION

NAPOLI 2009
 Filippi
HOW A BOAT IS MADE Engineering

Lay out of the boat

• Shell

• Deck

• Foot Plate

• Seat

• Rigger

ROWING BOATS CONSTRUCTION

NAPOLI 2009
 Filippi
HOW A BOAT IS MADE Engineering

From Composites to Sandwich

• For composite, we intend every structure where there is one

part named matrix, and one fiber: typical example is reinforced
concrete. The cement is the matrix and the iron bars are the
fiber

• The sandwich structure is made of two skins and a core, that

can be in wood, foam, honeycomb

• The skins can be in composite or any other material

ROWING BOATS CONSTRUCTION

NAPOLI 2009
 Filippi
HOW A BOAT IS MADE Engineering

Why Sandwich

• The sandwich structure is used where it is necessary to have

good mechanical characteristics with lightness, because the
stiffness parts are external, where the strength is higher. It's
important that the two skins will be joined to behave as
continuous material

• We use the skin in composite of carbon or kevlar fabrics with

epoxy resin, core in honeycomb

ROWING BOATS CONSTRUCTION

NAPOLI 2009
 Filippi
HOW A BOAT IS MADE Engineering

The Shell

• Sandwich in carbon-kevlar-honeycomb with epoxy resin

• Characteristic of carbon: high stiffness

• Characteristic of kevlar: cut resistance and good stiffness

• Characteristic of honeycomb: lightness

• Characteristic of epoxy resin: very good matrix junction

between fiber (carbon or kevlar).

ROWING BOATS CONSTRUCTION

NAPOLI 2009
 Filippi
HOW A BOAT IS MADE Engineering

The deck and the foot plate

• The deck of the single scull is completely in carbon fiber and

made with autoclave process

• The deck of the other boats is made with carbon fiber-PVC

foam-carbon fiber, with press process

• The foot plate is made of carbon fiber-wood-carbon fiber (press

process)

ROWING BOATS CONSTRUCTION

NAPOLI 2009
 Filippi
HOW A BOAT IS MADE Engineering

The seat and riggers

• The seat and carbon riggers are completely made of carbon

fiber (autoclave process)

• Aluminum riggers are TIG weld and then anodized

• Before market insertion every component will be tested to

fatigue, stiffness and fracture toughness

ROWING BOATS CONSTRUCTION

NAPOLI 2009
 Filippi
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT IN ROWING BOATS Engineering

Our studies

• Collaborators' individualization (MOX, Department of

material Ferrara, Istituto Normale Superiore Sant'Anna Pisa)

• Development of Kimè software that permits the drag

calculation in rowing movement (MOX)

• Research of new materials or lay-up to improve the stiffness

(University of Ferrara)

• Research of new system for data acquisition (Sant'Anna Pisa)

ROWING BOATS CONSTRUCTION

NAPOLI 2009
 Filippi
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT IN ROWING BOATS Engineering

Research of new materials

• Measurement of the strain in rowing boats

• Characterization of sandwich

• Computational simulation development of real deformation

phenomena

• Mechanical characteristics prediction of new type of sandwich

or materials with computational simulation

ROWING BOATS CONSTRUCTION

NAPOLI 2009
 Filippi
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT IN ROWING BOATS Engineering

Computational simulation development of real deformation

phenomena

• With finite elements method we can predict the result of

anything (damage impact example)

ROWING BOATS CONSTRUCTION

NAPOLI 2009
 Filippi
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT IN ROWING BOATS Engineering

Development of Kimè

• Study of the real phenomena in rowing boats from data system

acquisition

• Reality translation in equations

• Implementation of mathematical results in Kimè software

ROWING BOATS CONSTRUCTION

NAPOLI 2009
 Filippi
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT IN ROWING BOATS Engineering

Research of new system for data acquisition

• Study of needed frequency acquisition

• Development and/or test of various sensor types

• Development of data system acquisition

• Software development to improve the output

ROWING BOATS CONSTRUCTION

NAPOLI 2009
 Filippi
CAN WE RAPAIR THIS JEWEL? Engineering

The greatness of the sandwich composites is that they are simple

to be repaired (with experience)

Just with simple and not so expensive material we can fix any
break

We will show it in next workshop!

ROWING BOATS CONSTRUCTION

NAPOLI 2009
 Filippi
Waiting for the workshop... Engineering

This is a simple list of materials necessary for boat repair

• Bi-component Epoxy resin

• Glass micro fiber

• Glass fabrics, carbon fabric (Plain, 200gr not more)

• Plaster

• Sandpaper (various types, coarse and fine)

• Bi-component poly-acrylic varnish

ROWING BOATS CONSTRUCTION

NAPOLI 2009
 Filippi
Waiting for the workshop... Engineering

About resin

On sale we can find various types of epoxy resin.

Any of them are specialized to particular work. There are types
for lay-up, others for join, others very fast or clean...
It is important to understand what we need to make the best
choice.
For wet lay up, as in reparation, we need resin with 30minutes
or more of pot life (before crystallize), not so viscous (about 700
Mpas is correct, see data sheet), clear, perhaps it doesn't need a
very high temperature of cure (polymerization)

ROWING BOATS CONSTRUCTION

NAPOLI 2009
 Filippi
Waiting for the workshop... Engineering

Typical data sheet

Viscosity resin

Viscosity hardener

Viscosity mix

ROWING BOATS CONSTRUCTION

NAPOLI 2009
 Filippi
Engineering

Thank you for your attention

Eng. Alessandro Placido

R&D Filippi Lido s.r.l.

ROWING BOATS CONSTRUCTION

NAPOLI 2009