Bellum Eternus
Gallente
Death of Virtue
MeatSausage EXPRESS
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Posted - 2009.08.23 11:25:00 -
[1]
1. Are you a mechanical engineer? If not, I'd get someone who actually knows a thing or two about structural design, or start reading.
2. You had better have some pretty decent FEA software, like COSMOS (as an example) to do design iterations with before you actually build anything. If you don't know what FEA is, google it.
3. Start small and build a small working prototype before you blow tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on something that will break.
4. Realize that you could easily kill yourself or others if you make a mistake.
--
Bellum Eternus
Inveniam viam aut faciam.
Death of Virtue is Recruiting
|
Bellum Eternus
Gallente
Death of Virtue
MeatSausage EXPRESS
|
Posted - 2009.08.23 12:51:00 -
[2]
 Originally by: ADMR Hikari
Originally by: Bellum Eternus
1. Are you a mechanical engineer? If not, I'd get someone who actually knows a thing or two about structural design, or start reading.
2. You had better have some pretty decent FEA software, like COSMOS (as an example) to do design iterations with before you actually build anything. If you don't know what FEA is, google it.
3. Start small and build a small working prototype before you blow tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on something that will break.
4. Realize that you could easily kill yourself or others if you make a mistake.
Most of my family are in the Navy, some as engineering, others in Intel & a few work as flight deck crew. The one's that will come in handy is one of my uncle's, he's a CEC Officer, his main job is testing the structural designs of some of the Navy's warships so if all else fails I can always count on him.
Other methods, hrmm I have made a lot of friends in EvE and in the Army that work for design firms & metal fabrication plants so if nothing else I could ask for help from them as well.
Well there you go then. 
Also, I might suggest trying to model it while using composites for materials. It might be lighter, less expensive, and easier to build than an aluminum/steel structure.
I've done a lot of design work for large scale composite structures in the past (airfoils for windmill generators as an example) and I think you'd be surprised what you can accomplish with a little bit of fiberglass and some injectable foam.
Welding aluminum (correctly) particularly for marine applications, is extremely difficult and expensive. You could always try bonding (gluing) the aluminum however. Make sure you take into account your fastening methods when doing your FEA and what not.
If I were doing the project, I'd probably take a look at how people are currently building similar sized boats and research their construction techniques. It sounds to me like you're looking at large warship construction techniques and then trying to apply that to a smaller size boat. Also, warships and civilian craft have completely different requirements from an operational standpoint, so I'd look closely at the civilian designs first, as they're probably more applicable.
Looking at construction principles of the current bunch of racing yachts (America's Cup etc.) might also lend some design and construction insight. You could always take their 10/10ths tech and scale it back to something more economical.
--
Bellum Eternus
Inveniam viam aut faciam.
Death of Virtue is Recruiting
|