Advanced Topics in Characterization of Composites is a product of the ''Characterization of Composite Materials" graduate course in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Tulsa. It contains a series of chapters describing characterization techniques for polymer-matrix composite materials. Topics covered include: -thermal analysis using DSC, -residual stresses, -single-fiber fragmentation testing, -creep and creep nature, -impact testing, -infrared thermography, -air-coupled ultrasonics, -structural health monitoring, and -fractography. The chapters include comprehensive literature reviews, background information, and best practices in experimental composites evaluation.
Over much of the last three decades, the evolution of techniques for characterizing composite materials has struggled to keep up with the advances of composite materials themselves and their broadening areas of application. In recent years, however, much work has been done to consolidate test methods and better understand those being used. Finally,
Focusing on fundamentals while presenting more advanced topics, this introductory text, by presenting basic analytic and design principles, offers the knowledge required to effectively design structures, using advanced composite materials. It examines material forms, properties and manufacturing techniques.
Advanced composite materials or high performance polymer composites are an unusual class of materials that possess a combination of high strength and modulus and are substantially superior to structural metals and alloys on an equal weight basis. The book provides an overview of the key components that are considered in the design of a composite, of surface chemistry, of analyses/testing, of structure/property relationships with emphasis on compressive strength and damage tolerance. Newly emerging tests, particularly open hole compression tests are expected to provide greater assurance of composite performance. This publication is an "up-to-date" treatment of leading edge areas of composite technology with literature reviewed until recently and includes thermoplastic prepregs/composites and major application areas.
The papers in this volume cover a broad spectrum of topics that represent the truly diverse nature of the field of composite materials. This collection presents research and findings relevant to the latest advances in composites materials, specifically their use in aerospace, maritime, and even land applications. The editors have made every effort to bring together authors who put forth recent advances in their research while concurrently both elaborating on and thereby enhancing our prevailing understanding of the salient aspects related to the science, engineering, and far-reaching technological applications of composite materials.
Engineering practice has revealed that innovative technologies’ structural applications require new design concepts related to developing materials with mechanical properties tailored for construction purposes. This would allow the efficient use of engineering materials. The efficiency can be understood in a simplified and heuristic manner as the optimization of performance and the proper combination of structural components, leading to the consumption of the least amount of natural resources. The solution to the eco-optimization problem, based on the adequate characterization of the materials, will enable implementing environmentally friendly engineering principles when the efficient use of advanced materials guarantees the required structural safety. Identifying fundamental relationships between the structure of advanced composites and their physical properties is the focus of this book. The collected articles explore the development of sustainable composites with valorized manufacturability corresponding to Industrial Revolution 4.0 ideology. The publications, amongst others, reveal that the application of nano-particles improves the mechanical performance of composite materials; heat-resistant aluminium composites ensure the safety of overhead power transmission lines; chemical additives can detect the impact of temperature on concrete structures. This book demonstrates that construction materials’ choice has considerable room for improvement from a scientific viewpoint, following heuristic approaches.
Advanced Fibrous Composite Materials for Ballistic Protection provides the latest information on ballistic protection, a topic that remains an important issue in modern times due to ever increasing threats coming from regional conflicts, terrorism, and anti-social behavior. The basic requirements for ballistic protection equipment are first and foremost, the prevention of a projectile from perforating, the reduction of blunt trauma to the human body caused by ballistic impact, the necessity that they are thermal and provide moisture comfort, and that they are lightweight and flexible to guarantee wearer's mobility. The main aim of this book is to present some of the most recent developments in the design and engineering of woven fabrics and their use as layering materials to form composite structures for ballistic personal protection. Chapter topics include High Performance Ballistic Fibres, Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE), Ballistic Damage of Hybrid Composite Materials, Analysis of Ballistic Fabrics and Layered Composite Materials, and Multi-Scale Modeling of Polymeric Composite Materials for Ballistic Protection. - Contributions from leading experts in the field - Cutting edge developments on the engineering of ballistic materials - Comprehensive analysis of the development and uses of advanced fibrous composite materials
Smart Composites: Mechanics and Design addresses the current progress in the mechanics and design of smart composites and multifunctional structures. Divided into three parts, it covers characterization of properties, analyses, and design of various advanced composite material systems with an emphasis on the coupled mechanical and non-mechanical behaviors. Part one includes analyses of smart materials related to electrically conductive, magnetostrictive nanocomposites and design of active fiber composites. These discussions include several techniques and challenges in manufacturing smart composites and characterizing coupled properties, as well as the analyses of composite structures at various length and time scales undergoing coupled mechanical and non-mechanical stimuli considering elastic, viscoelastic (and/or viscoplastic), fatigue, and damage behaviors. Part two is dedicated to a higher-scale analysis of smart structures with topics such as piezoelectrically actuated bistable composites, wing morphing design using macrofiber composites, and multifunctional layered composite beams. The analytical expressions for characterization of the smart structures are presented with an attention to practical application. Finally, part three presents recent advances regarding sensing and structural health monitoring with a focus on how the sensing abilities can be integrated within the material and provide continuous sensing, recognizing that multifunctional materials can be designed to both improve and enhance the health-monitoring capabilities and also enable effective nondestructive evaluation. Smart Composites: Mechanics and Design is an essential text for those interested in materials that not only possess the classical properties of stiffness and strength, but also act as actuators under a variety of external stimuli, provide passive and active response to enable structural health monitoring, facilitate advanced nondestructive testing strategies, and enable shape-changing and morphing structures.
In this book, a precise treatment of the experimental characterization of advanced composite materials using Digital Image Correlation (DIC) is presented. The text explains test methods, testing setup with 2D- and stereo-DIC, specimen preparation and patterning, testing analysis and data reduction schemes to determine and to compare mechanical properties, such as modulus, strength and fracture toughness of advanced composite materials. Sensitivity and uncertainty studies on the DIC calculated data and mechanical properties for a detailed engineering-based understanding are covered instead of idealized theories and sugarcoated results. The book provides students, instructors, researchers and engineers in industrial or government institutions, and practitioners working in the field of experimental/applied structural mechanics of materials a myriad of color figures from DIC measurements for better explanation, datasets of material properties serving as input parameters for analytical modelling, raw data and computer codes for data reduction, illustrative graphs for teaching purposes, practice exercises with solutions provided online and extensive references to the literature at the end of each stand-alone chapter.
Fillers and Reinforcements for Advanced Nanocomposites reviews cutting-edge, state-of-the-art research on the effective use of nanoscaled fillers and reinforcements to enhance the performance of advanced nanocomposites, both in industrial and manufacturing applications. It covers a broad range of topics such as nanocelluloses, nanotubes, nanoplatelets, and nanoparticles, as well as their extensive applications. The chapters provide detailed information on how fillers and reinforcements are used in the fabrication, synthesis and characterization of advanced nanocomposites to achieve extraordinary performance of new materials and significant enhancements in their mechanical, thermal, structural and multi-functional properties. It also highlights new technologies for the fabrication of advanced nanocomposites using innovative electrospinning techniques. - Covers topics such as nanocelluloses, nanotubes, nanoplatelets, and nanoparticles, as well as their extensive applications - Discusses the latest research on the effective use of nanoscaled fillers and reinforcements to enhance the performance of advanced nanocomposites - Explains how fillers and reinforcements are used in the fabrication, synthesis and characterization of advanced nanocomposites
