Principles of Composite Material Mechanics

Ronald F. Gibson

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781498788243
• Edition: 4
• Topic: Naturwissenschaften
• Subtopic: Mechanik

Principles of Composite Material Mechanics covers a unique blend of classical and contemporary mechanics of composites technologies. It presents analytical approaches ranging from the elementary mechanics of materials to more advanced elasticity and finite element numerical methods, discusses novel materials such as nanocomposites and hybrid multis

Chapter 1

Introduction

1.1 Basic Concepts

Structural materials can be divided into four basic categories: metals, polymers, ceramics, and composites. Composites, which consist of two or more separate materials combined in a structural unit, are typically made from various combinations of the other three materials. In the early days of modern man-made composite materials, the constituents were typically macroscopic. As composites technology advanced over the last few decades, the constituent materials, particularly the reinforcement materials, steadily decreased in size. Most recently, there has been considerable interest in “nanocomposites” having nanometer-sized reinforcements such as carbon nanoparticles, nanofibers, and nanotubes, because of the extraordinary properties of these materials.

The relative importance of the four basic materials in a historical context has been presented by Ashby [1], as shown schematically in Figure 1.1 that clearly shows the steadily increasing importance of polymers, composites, and ceramics, and the decreasing role of metals. Composites are generally used because they have desirable properties that cannot be achieved by any of the constituent materials acting alone. The most common example is the fibrous composite consisting of reinforcing fibers embedded in a binder or matrix material. Particle or flake reinforcements are also used, but they are generally not as effective as fibers.

Figure 1.1

Relative importance of metals, polymers, composites, and ceramics as a function of time. The diagram is schematic and describes neither tonnage nor value. The timescale is nonlinear. (From Ashby, M. F. 1987. Technology of the 1990s: Advanced materials and predictive design. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London , A322, 393–407. Reproduced by pe...