Materials selection for current and future UK naval requirements

Abstract

In recent years, naval shipbuilding in the UK has been given a significant boost with the Type 45 destroyer programme and the Queen Elizabeth Class (QEC) aircraft carrier programme. Both these programmes raised a number of new issues with regard to the rolled materials used in their construction. The Type 45 programme focused heavily on the use of higher strength steel to reduce weight, which in itself generated other challenges from the use of thin plate. Significant issues about residual stresses became evident through the construction phase and also through some joint academic studies. The QEC programme utilised some of the material concepts developed on Type 45, but included the need to use a higher strength steel on the flight deck and the hanger deck. Specific areas of the vessels are subject to through thickness tensile stresses and almost 3000 t of plate are Z grade. Within that, a small proportion is required to meet a 60°C toughness requirement, in certain areas. This has led on to a more wide ranging review of currently available materials and their potential application within naval shipbuilding. The use of still higher strength steels has been considered in a number of thickness ranges and their potential for blast resistance is being assessed.