: Sam,

: This has given me a massive dose of nostalgia.

: For 3 1/2 years I studied aerospace engineering and prepared reports on this
: sort of test, mostly on steel and aluminium though (we did a few hand
: layups of CF and glass and used a similar rig). I was beaten by the
: complex mathematics of aircraft and rocket dynamics in the end and
: finished up with a degree in environmental engineering (I am now working
: as a civil engineer for a water authority).

: Your samples look thoroughly tested!
: Its difficult when working with hand layed up composites and a natural
: composite like wood to achieve truly consistant results but your tests
: show some pretty clear trends.

: Will you be taking the calculations all the way back to the actual individual
: material strengths? Do your results compare well with the specified
: properties?

: Argh, you have woken something in me that has been asleep for a long time.

: Thankyou for sharing your testing proceedure and results. I miss this kind of
: thing.

: Regards,

: Nicholas Sheahan

: Mildura Australia

Nicholas,

Where is Mildura? In 1980, I helped bring a boat home to Sydney from Honolulu. We entered in Gladstone and made stops in Malooloba (sp?) and Coffs Harbour on the way south. Eden was the farthest south I got (on land) after breaking our rudder in the Hobart race.

I don’t plan on looking at the individual materials. The drop weight approach is the simple way around that. We could use laminate theory to build up the panels, but it would involve tons more testing (on equipment I don't have access to for this) to get the required lamina properties. Even then, we would eventually need to do full panel tests to validate the laminate model.

Thanks,
Sam