3D printing miniature marine structures models for structural analysis purpose: Is it possible?

In the last few years, additive manufacture techniques – also known as 3d printing – are gaining more applications in the maritime sector including the production of functional large ship components in compliance with demanded operational and quality standards. By contrast, 3d printing miniature models of marine structures with the aim to reproduce structural responses brings along a higher degree of complexity. On the one hand, miniature thin-walled structures entails different manufacturing challenges when compared with large-size ship components. On the other hand, modeling structural events that comprise extreme reduction scales (around 1:100), material deformation and fracture at high loading rates, among other aspects, require purpose-designed scaling laws to handle all these effects adequately. The aim of this work is to present a wide panorama in the development of miniature 3d printed marine structures aiming to model experimentally ship collision and grounding events in reduced scale. Some preliminary experimental tests in miniature marine structures are also presented.