College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Term of Award

Spring 2026

Degree Name

Master of Science, Mechanical Engineering

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (restricted to Georgia Southern)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

Department

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Committee Chair

Mohammadamin Ezazi

Committee Member 1

Hayri Sezer

Committee Member 2

Hossain Ahmed

Abstract

The growing importance of underwater fabrication and repairs is highlighted with the prevalence of different offshore and submerged infrastructures, such as oil and gas exploration platforms, underwater pipelines, naval vessels, marine renewable energy infrastructures, and underwater research installations. Despite the existing traditional methods and technologies, rapid and reliable underwater fabrication and repairing remains a major challenge for the aforementioned applications. Often, conventional approaches are time-consuming, labor-intensive, and include complex scenarios that represent logistical challenges. To help address these shortcomings, a rapid visible light curable polymer composite reinforced with sand and gravel has been developed that can show curing underwater within a duration of only 3 minutes when irradiated by the visible light. A wide range of chemical and mechanical characterization tests were performed, including Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy analysis, tensile, compression, interfacial adhesion, and shore D hardness tests to evaluate the curing behavior and mechanical properties of the developed material. The results show that the rapid visible light-curable polymer composite could be a promising approach for underwater fabrication and repairing with structural integrity, durability, and dimensional stability.

Research Data and Supplementary Material

No

Download

Available for download on Thursday, April 15, 2027

Share

COinS