Tourism is an important industry in India. A composite boat developed by a group of Indian organisations offers a number of advantages over traditional wooden boats, including lower maintenance, and rental, costs. A houseboat can be the ultimate statement in luxury. A houseboat is traditionally made of resinous wood and it takes 8-10 trees (70-80 years old) to built one. The development of the composite houseboat was taken up as a project under the Advanced Composites Programme of TIFAC with the aim of improved aesthetics, boat stability, comort level and maintainability The scaled down (1:17) version of composite hull was designed and fabricated byIIT-Madras and tested for its hydrodynamic stability in their towing tank. The model hull behaviour was studied at various speeds and the hull profile was determined for scaling up. The sandwich hull with polyurethane foam core was fabricated with composite skins. While boat building in India has been a traditional activity, it is now important to introduce new materials such as composites and processes such as vacuumm infusion technique. India is an emerging market for leisure activities with higher disposable incomes per family.
Composite houseboat helps tourists explore India
Reinforced Plastics ; 50 , 4 ; 46-48
2006
3 Seiten, 1 Bild, 1 Tabelle
Article (Journal)
English
Bootsbau , Verbundwerkstoff , Boot , Indien