Make the bending parts thick enough (how thick will depend on materials,
vac presssure and state of resin cure, do some tests, but make them at
least 1m/3' long) and they will not move once the bulkheads are in.
Because of tapers on the foam edges and the cost of thick foam, your idea would be hard work. It would be easier to vacuum either strips or thin pieces of foam in to the curve, then add glass.
If you want very tight curves, glass both sides, then remove the glass on the inner face for the thickness of the core either side of the bend and cut a V half way through the core. Then fold it. The outer glass won't break (test first, there will be a thickness at which it does). Then fillet and tab the inside of the bend.
Lw hull infused and bent. Looks great. 3,000 gsm of glass bent into a 400mm/16" dia curve, (we thought this was pushing the limits) 2,000 gsm into a 100mm dia curve. Not a stress mark to be seen.
rob
I have been thinking about making panels like Rob is doing, where the foam is left out of part of the panel, so that it bends easily. That looks like an easy way to make the beams, as well as the hulls. My concern is that it seems like the final shape would not be rigid because that bent portion can flex. You can put in bulkheads, but then that force is take by the bulkhead, and not the hull.It seems like it would be easy to make 90 degree bends using panels like that, then put a quarter section of a foam cylinder in the corner and then glass over it and make the whole structure rigid again. Shaping the curve out of sheet foam seems like a pain, however. I was wondering if anyone knows of a source for rigid foam cylinders in a 1" or 6" radius, that would be great.- GardnerPasadena, MD