The structure and construction of ships made of aluminum alloy, generally of the type of wrought aluminum alloy, when experiencing fatigue failure caused by cracking of the ship structure, is a serious problem. Judging from the ‘weaknesses’ of aluminum material for ships, this chapter will explain the use of alternative materials for ship building, namely aluminum-based composite material which is an aluminum alloy AlSi10Mg (b) ship building material based on the European Nation (EN) Aluminum Casting (AC) - 43,100, with silicon carbide (SiC) reinforcement which has been treated with an optimum composition of 15%, so that the composite material is written with EN AC-43100 (AlSi10Mg (b) + SiC * / 15p. Composite ship model using ANSYS (ANalysis SYStem) software to determine the distribution of stress. The overall result of the voltage distribution has a value that does not exceed the allowable stress (sigma 0.2) and has a factor of safety above the minimum allowable limit, so it is safe to use. The reduction in plate thickness on the EN AC-43100 (AlSi10Mg (b)) + SiC * /15p composite vessel is significant enough to reduce the ship’s weight, so it will increase the speed of the ship.
Part of the book: Finite Element Methods and Their Applications