Joint Design and Strength Evaluation of Composite Air Spoiler for Ship

Air spoiler, which can reduce the drag during operation, can be considered as a possible means to reduce carbon dioxide emission and to increase fuel efficiency. In this study, a composite air spoiler was designed and tested by static and repeated loads. The Green Water Pressure of 0.1 MPa a ship experiences during operation was perpendicularly applied to the air spoiler. Air spoiler was manufactured with sandwich panel which has glass fabric face and balsa core. Multiple sandwich panels were assembled to steel frame by bolt joint. The joint was designed to have bearing failure and examined by static and fatigue tests. Tests showed that the designed joint has enough margin of safety to endure joint failure. The developed sandwich panel to air spoiler is planned to be applied to a large scale commercial ship.