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>>Dr Rodney Thomson: So the Fire Research Program I think has
fundamental benefits to a lot of industries where composites are used and the industry is
moving towards composite fuselage structures
where obviously the fire performance is a key concern.
>>Dr Stefanie Feih: The CRC ACS is
really looking at manufacturing and analysis of composite structures
together with
prominent aerospace companies, mostly in Australia, but also around the world.
>>Dr Everson Kandare: We're trying to come up with lightweight materials that can replace
currently used materials like steel and aluminium
in naval ships.
>>Dr Stefanie Feih: If you have a fire on a ship,
how do you fight that fire? How much time do you have to fight that fire?
Can you use composite structures
on a ship? What are their properties? What are the structural properties of fire?
That's the work we've been investigating.
>>Dr Rodney Thomson: The work done has built up this fundamental understanding and RMIT were at the centre of that,
working alongside organisations overseas as part of the ONR funded project. They're bringing that
knowledge now to this project
which will be extended to the types of structures and materials that are used in the offshore industry including
understanding how the composites perform in comparison to steel and how structures consisting
both of composite and steel will perform together.
>>Dr Everson Kandare: The ultimate outcome is to be able to significantly increase the fire safe ability of composites
to an extent that if there is a fire you need your structures to survive for
at least enough time for the passengers to evacuate before the structure collapses.
>>Dr Rodney Thomson: The potential is for this technology that's been developed within RMIT,
within the CRC ACS program,
to be extended to other industries
to make a real difference to safety and performance of composites.