ABSTRACT
Advanced composites materials have created a revolution in high performance structures. Their advantages relative to conventional materials such as high strength to weight and stiffness to weight ratios, superior resistance to environmental conditions, design flexibility, make them attractive for a wide range of applications in marine, aerospace, automotive, and chemical, industries (Swanson 1997; Jones 1999). Especially, the recent development in the military ships shows that composite structures can be used to increase the operational performance to reduce maintenance and fuel consumption costs (Mouritz et al. 2001). Recent advances in laminated composite and sandwich materials make reliable to build naval ships with more than 100 m (Mouritz et al. 2001; Kontastinos 2001).
