Composite Mast Analysis for Yacht Racing
Challenge
Yacht racing is a sport for the rich, and, on a world stage, it is the equivalent of Formula 1 on water. With the push for ever-faster yachts, comes the demand for lightweight structures, and to support this, the use of composites has become a key feature.
Solution
Working with a client in the yacht racing industry, our experts needed to evaluate and critique the design of a composite yacht mast to meet the harsh environment of the open oceans. Our engineers were able to advise our client on the optimization of the design and the safe working limits.
Results
TECHNIA was approached by a client to evaluate and critique the design of a composite mast to meet the harsh environment of the open oceans. Using Abaqus, our team of simulation engineers was able to replicate the ply lay-up construction and ply drop-off and verify the simulation, correlated with a real-life failure. From the results, our engineers were able to advise our client on the optimization of the design and the safe working limits. With the use of the CATIA composite module, which has a module to define the draping parameters, our experts were able to provide a manufacturing playbook to fully define the full production process.
