Environmental Impacts of Fiber Composite Materials : Study on Life Cycle Assessment of Materials used forShip Superstructure

Abstract: This thesis was conducted to investigate the impacts of fiber composites on theenvironment. Composition, properties and application of fiber compositeswere also studied. On the basis of its application, taking into account previousstudies information was gathered related to impacts of these fiber composites.In order to study impacts of fiber composites in marine application a detailstudy was conducted where using the LCA method and Sima Pro softwarethree ship superstructures of the ship Stena Hollandica were compared. Thesewere steel superstructure, balsawood core superstructure and PVC foamsuperstructure. The results showed that over the lifecycle the impacts of PVCand balsawood superstructure were almost the same and were better than thesteel superstructure. The main contribution of impacts over the lifetime wasdue to the fuel consumed. When only the superstructure was consideredseparately from the life cycle the best choice was balsawood and the PVC foamsuperstructure had the most impacts. Overall it was found that balsawoodcould be considered as the best alternative as a material for the construction ofthis ship superstructure.