Jute fibre reinforced biocomposite: Seawater immersion effects on tensile properties and its application in a ship hull design by finite-element analysis

Glass Fibre Reinforced Plastics (GFRP) are widely used to manufacture small ship hulls. However, these materials do not use renewable resources, and natural-fibres-reinforced-resins from biological resources could be a more sustainable solution. This work aims to study the mechanical feasibility of a jute-fibre-reinforced-bioepoxy (JFRB) in naval applications. For that purpose, the effects of seawater immersion on the tensile properties of JFRB were evaluated. After seawater immersion, the results showed that Young's modulus and tensile stress decreased by 4% and 1.5%, respectively, and elongation at break increased by 7%, with the density remaining almost constant. Those results make it possible to think of jute as an ecological reinforcement for naval applications. To validate the possibilities of JFRB, a design of a recreational boat hull under ISO 12215-5: 2019 standard was performed. Through a Finite Element methodology, the same safety factor was considered using the GFRP and the JFRB under the simplified load conditions proposed by the standard. The results demonstrated that the solution with the studied JFRB was mechanically feasible by increasing the thickness from 3.5 mm to 4.7 mm, which increased the weight of the biocomposite hull by 11%.