Introduction

There is an unabated quest for new materials which will satisfy the specific requirements for various
applications like structural, medical, house-hold, industrial, construction, transportation, electrical;
electronics, etc. Metals are the most commonly used materials in these applications. In the yore of time,
there have been specific requirements on the properties of these materials. It is impossible of any
material to fulfill all these properties. Hence, newer materials are developed. In the course, we are going
to learn more about composite materials. First, we will deal with primary understanding of these
materials
and
then
we
will
learn
the
mechanics
of
these
materials.
Definition of a Composite Material
A composite material is defined as a material which is composed of two or more materials at a
microscopic scale and has chemically distinct phases.
Thus, a composite material is heterogeneous at a microscopic scale but statistically homogeneous at
macroscopic scale. The materials which form the composite are also called as constituents orconstituent
materials. The constituent materials of a composite have significantly different properties. Further, it
should be noted that the properties of the composite formed may not be obtained from these constituents.
However, a combination of two or more materials with significant properties will not suffice to be called
as a composite material. In general, the following conditions must be satisfied to be called a composite
material:
1. The combination of materials should result in significant property changes. One can see
significant changes when one of the constituent material is in platelet or fibrous from.
2. The content of the constituents is generally more than 10% (by volume).
3. In general, property of one constituent is much greater
than the corresponding
property of the other constituent.
The composite materials can be natural or artificially made materials. In the following section we will
see the examples of these materials.
Why we need these materials?
There is unabated thirst for new materials with improved desired properties. All the desired properties are
difficult to find in a single material. For example, a material which needs high fatigue life may not be
cost effective. The list of the desired properties, depending upon the requirement of the application, is
given below.
1. Strength
2. Stiffness
3. Toughness
4. High corrosion resistance
5. High wear resistance
6. High chemical resistance
7. High environmental degradation resistance
8. Reduced weight
9. High fatigue life
10. Thermal insulation or conductivity

11. Electrical insulation or conductivity

12. Acoustic insulation
13. Radar transparency
14. Energy dissipation
15. Reduced cost
16. Attractiveness
The list of desired properties is in-exhaustive. It should be noted that the most important characteristics
of composite materials is that their properties are tailorable, that is, one can design the required
properties.
What are the constituents in a typical composite?
In a composite, typically, there are two constituents. One of the constituent acts as a reinforcement and
other acts as a matrix. Sometimes, the constituents are also referred as phases.
What are the types of reinforcements?
The reinforcements in a composite material come in various forms. These are depicted through Figure
1.1.
1. Fibre: Fibre is an individual filament of the material. A filament with length to diameter ratio
above 1000 is called a fibre. The fibrous form of the reinforcement is widely used. The fibres can
be in the following two forms:
a. Continuous fibres: If the fibres used in a composite are very long and unbroken
or cut then it forms a continuous fibre composite. A composite, thus formed using
continuous fibres is called as fibrous composite. The fibrous composite is the
most widely used form of composite.
b. Short/chopped fibres: The fibres are chopped into small pieces when used in
fabricating a composite. A composite with short fibres as reinforcements is called
as short fibre composite.
In the fibre reinforced composites, the fibre is the major load carrying constituent.
2. Particulate: The reinforcement is in the form of particles which are of the order of a few microns
in diameter. The particles are generally added to increase the modulus and decrease the ductility
of the matrix materials. In this case, the load is shared by both particles and matrix materials.
However, the load shared by the particles is much larger than the matrix material. For example, in
an automobile application carbon black (as a particulate reinforcement) is added in rubber (as
matrix material). The composite with reinforcement in particle form is called aparticulate
composite.
3. Flake: Flake is a small, flat, thin piece or layer (or a chip) that is broken from a larger piece.
Since these are two dimensional in geometry, they impart almost equal strength in all directions

of their planes. Thus, these are very effective reinforcement components. The flakes can be
packed more densely when they are laid parallel, even denser than unidirectional fibres and
spheres. For example, aluminum flakes are used in paints. They align themselves parallel to the
surface of the coating which imparts the good properties.
4. Whiskers: These are nearly perfect single crystal fibres. These are short, discontinuous and
polygonal in cross-section.
5. The classification of composites based on the form of reinforcement is shown in Figure 1.2. The
detailed classification further is given in Figure 1.3. The classification of particulate composites is
depicted further in Figure 1.4. Some of the terms used in these classifications will be explained in
the following paragraphs/lectures.

Figure 1.2: Classification of composites based on reinforcement type

Figure 1.3: Classification of fibre composite materials

Figure 1.4: Classification of particulate composites

Why are reinforcement made in thin fibre form?
There are various reasons because of which the reinforcement is made in thin fibre form. These reasons
are given below.
a) An important experimental study by Leonardo da Vinci on the tensile strength of iron wires of various
lengths (see references in [2, 3]) is well known to us. In this study it was revealed that the wires of same
diameter with shorter length showed higher tensile strength than those with longer lengths. The reason for
this is the fact that the number of flaws in a shorter length of wire is small as compared longer length.
Further, it is well known that the strength of a bulk material is very less than the strength of the same
material in wire form.
The same fact has been explored in the composites with reinforcement in fibre form. As the fibres are
made of thin diameter, the inherent flaws in the material decrease. Hence, the strength of the fibre
increases as the fibre diameter decreases. This kind of experimental study has revealed the similar results
[2, 3]. This has been shown in Figure 1.5 qualitatively.

Figure 1.5: Qualitative variation of fibre tensile strength with

fibre diameter

b) The quality of load transfer between fibre and matrix depends upon the surface area between fibre and
matrix. If the surface area between fibre and matrix is more, better is the load transfer. It can be shown

that for given volume of fibres in a composite, the surface area between fibre and matrix increases if the
fibre diameter decreases.
Let
be the average diameter of the fibres, be the length of the fibres and be the number of fibres
for a given volume of fibres in a composite. Then the surface area available for load transfer is
(1.1)
The volume of these fibres in a composite is
(1.2)
Now, let us replace the fibres with a smaller average diameter of such that the volume of the fibres is
unchanged. Then the number of fibres required to maintain the same fibre volume is
(1.3)
The new surface area between fibre and matrix is
(1.4)
Thus, for a given volume of fibres in a composite, the area between fibre and matrix is inversely
proportional to the average diameter of the fibres.
c) The fibres should be flexible so that they can be bent easily without breaking. This property of the
fibres is very important for woven composites. In woven composites the flexibility of fibres plays an
important role. Ultra thin composites are used in deployable structures.
The flexibility is simply the inverse of the bending stiffness. From mechanics of solids study the bending
stiffness is EI, where is Youngs modulus of the material and is the second moment of area of the
cross section of the fibre. For a cylindrical fibre, the second moment of area is
(1.5)
A. Natural fibres and
Thus,
B. Advanced fibres
(1.6)
A. Natural fibres Flexibility
The
fibres
are equation
divided into
sub is
categories.
Thus,natural
from the
above
it isfollowing
clear that three
if a fibre
thin, i.e. small in diameter, it is more flexible.
o Animal fibers: silk, wool, spider silk, sinew, camel hair, etc.
o Materials
Plant/vegetable
fibers: cotton (seed), jute (stem), hemp (stem), sisal (leaf), ramie,
Reinforcement:
and Forms
bamboo, maze, sugarcane, banana, kapok, coir, abaca, kenaf, flax, raffia palm, etc.
o Mineral fibers: asbestos, basalt, mineral wool, glass wool.
What
the types
of fibres? fibers:
B. are
Natural
fibresAdvanced
Theadvanced
fibres thatfibre
are used
in theas
fabrication
of a has
composite
can be divided
two
categories
An
is defined
a fibre which
a high specific
stiffnessinto
(that
is,broad
ratio of
Youngsas
follows:
modulus to the density of the material,
) and a high specific strength (that is the ratio of ultimate
strength to the density of the material,

).

What are the advanced fibres?

The fibres made from following materials are the advanced fibres.
1. Carbon and/or Graphite
2. Glass fibers

3.
4.
5.
6.

Alumina
Aramid
Silicon carbide
Sapphire

Matrix Materials
Introduction
In the previous lecture we have introduced various advanced fibres along with their fabrication
processes, precursor materials and key features. In the present lecture we will introduce some matrix
materials, their key features and applications.
What are the matrix materials used in composites?
The matrix materials used in composites can be broadly categorized as: Polymers, Metals, Ceramics
and Carbon and Graphite.
The polymeric matrix materials are further divided into:
1. Thermoplastic which soften upon heating and can be reshaped with heat and pressure.
2. Thermoset which become cross linked during fabrication and does not soften upon
reheating.
The metal matrix materials are: Aluminum, Copper and Titanium.
The ceramic materials are: Carbon, Silicon carbide, Silicon nitride.
The classification of matrix materials is shown in Figure 1.11.

Figure 1.11: Matrix materials

What are the thermoplastic matrix materials? What are their key features?
The following are the thermoplastic materials:
1. polypropylene,
2. polyvinyl chloride,
3. nylon,
4. polyurethane,
5. poly-ether-ether ketone (PEEK),
6. polyphenylene sulfide (PPS),
7. polysulpone.

The key features of the thermoplastic matrix materials are:

1. higher toughness
2. high volume
3. low cost processing
4. The use temperature range is upto 225 .
5.
What are the thermoset matrix materials? What are their key features?
The thermoset matrix materials are:
1. polyesters,
2. epoxies,
3. polyimides
The key features of these materials are given for individual material in the following.
Polyesters
1. Used extensively with glass fibers
2. Inexpensive
3. Light weight
4. Temperature range upto 100 .
5. Resistant to environmental exposures
Epoxy
1. Expensive
2. Better moisture resistance
3. Lower shrinkage on curing
4. Use temperature is about 175
Polyimide
1. Higher use temperature about 300
2. Difficult to fabricate
What are the problems with the use of polymer matrix materials?
1. Limited temperature range.
2. Susceptibility to environmental degradation due to moisture, radiation, atomic oxygen (in space)
3. Low transverse strength.
4. High residual stress due to large mismatch in coefficients of thermal expansion between fiber and
matrix.
5. Polymer matrix cannot be used near or above the glass transition temperature.
6. Comparison between Thermoplastics and Thermosets:
The comparison between the thermoplastic and thermoset matrix materials is given in Table 1
below:
Table 1.1: Comparison between thermoplastics and thermosets.
Thermoplastics

Thermosets

Soften upon heat and pressure

Decompose upon heating

Hence, can be repaired

Difficult to repair

High strains are required for failure

Low strains are required for

failure

Can be re-processed

Can not be re-processed

Indefinite shelf life

Limited shelf life

Short curing cycles

Long curing cycles

Non tacky and easy to handle

Tacky and therefore, difficult to

handle

Excellent resistance to solvents

Fair resistance to solvents

Higher processing temperature is required.

Hence, viscosities make the processing difficult.

Lower processing temperature is

required.

What are the common metals used as matrix materials? What are their advantages and
disadvantages?
The common metals used as matrix materials are aluminum, titanium and copper.
Advantages:
1. Higher transfer strength,
2. High toughness (in contrast with brittle behavior of polymers and ceramics)
3. The absence of moisture and
4. High thermal conductivity (copper and aluminum).
Dis-advantages:
1. Heavier
2. More susceptible to interface degradation at the fiber/matrix interface and
3. Corrosion is a major problem for the metals
The attractive feature of the metal matrix composites is the higher temperature use. The aluminum
matrix composite can be used in the temperature range upward of 300C while the titanium matrix
composites can be used above 800 .
What are the ceramic matrix materials? What are their advantages and disadvantages?
The carbon, silicon carbide and silicon nitride are ceramics and used as matrix materials.
Ceramic:
The advantages of the ceramic matrix materials are:
1. The ceramic composites have very high temperature range of above 2000
.
2. High elastic modulus
3. Low density
The disadvantages of the ceramic matrix materials are:
1. The ceramics are very brittle in nature.
2. Hence, they are susceptible to flows.
Carbon
The advantages of the carbon matrix materials are:
1. High temperature at 2200 .

2. Carbon/carbon bond is stronger at elevated temperature than room temperature.

The disadvantages of the carbon matrix materials are:
1. The fabrication is expensive.
2. The multistage processing results in complexity and higher additional cost.
It should be noted that a composite with carbon fibres as reinforcement as well as matrix material is
known as carbon-carbon composite. The application of carbon-carbon composite is seen in leading edge
of the space shuttle where the high temperature resistance is required. The carbon-carbon composites can
resist the temperatures upto 3000 .
The advantages of these composites are:
1. Very strong and light as compared to graphite fibre alone.
2. Low density.
3. Excellent tensile and compressive strength.
4. Low thermal conductivity.
5. High fatigue resistance.
6. High coefficient of friction.
The disadvantages include:
1. Susceptible to oxidation at elevated temperatures.
2. High material and production cost.
3. Low shear strength.
Figure 1.12 depicts the range of use temperature for matrix material in composites. It should be noted that
for the structural applications the maximum use temperature is a critical parameter. This maximum
temperature depends upon the maximum use temperature of the matrix materials.

Figure 1.12: Range of use temperature for matrix materials in composites

What are the different forms of composites?
1. Unidirectional lamina:
o It is basic form of continuous fiber composites.
o A lamina is also called by ply or layer.
o Fibers are in same direction.
o Orthotropic in nature with different properties in principal material directions.
o For sufficient number of filaments (or layers) in the thickness direction, the effective
properties in the transverse plane (perpendicular to the fibers) may be isotropic. Such a
composite is called as transversely isotropic.
2. Woven fabrics:
o Examples of woven fabric are clothes, baskets, hats, etc.
o Flexible fibers such as glass, carbon, aramid can be woven in to cloth fabric, can be
impregnated with a matrix material.

Different patterns of weaving are shown in Figure 1.13.

Typical weaving patterns are shown in Figure 1.13.
o

Figure 1.13: Types of weave

3. Laminate:
1. Stacking of unidirectional or woven fabric layers at different fiber orientations.
2. Effective properties vary with:
1. orientation
2. thickness
3. stacking sequence
A symmetric laminate is shown in Figure 1.14.
What are the factors that affect the composite properties?
There are various factors upon which the properties of the composite depend. Following are the various
factors:
1. Properties of the constituent materials. Apart from this, the properties of other phases present, like
additives, fillers and other reaction phases also affect the properties of the composite.
2. Length of the fibre.
3. Orientation of the fibres (with respect to the loading direction).
4. Cross sectional shape of the fibre.

5. Distribution and arrangement of the fibres in the matrix material.

6. Proportions of the fibre and matrix material, that is, volume fractions of the constituent materials.
Terminologies Used in Fibrous Composites
The following are the useful terminologies used in the composite related studies.
1. Filament: individual element
2. Strand: Bundles of 204 filaments or multiple of these.
3. Roving: Combination of strands to form thicker parallel bundles.
4. Yarns: strands are twisted to form yarns.
5. Aspect ratio: The ratio of length to diameter of a fiber.
6. Bi-component fibers: A fiber made by spinning two compositions concurrently in each capillary
of the spinneret.
7. Blend: A mix of natural staple fiber such as cotton or wool and synthetic staple fibers such as
nylon, polyester. Blends are made to take advantages of the natural and synthetic fibers.
8. Braiding: Two or more yarns are intertwined to form an elongated structure. The long direction
is called the bias direction or machine direction.
9. Carding: Process of making fibers parallel by using rollers covered with needles.
10. Chopped strands: Fibers are chopped to various lengths, 3 to 50 mm, for mixing with resins.
11. Continuous fibers: Continuous strands of fibers, generally, available as wound fiber spools.
12. Cord: A relatively thick fibrous product made by twisting together two or more plies of yarn.
13. Covering power: The ability of fiber to occupy space. Noncircular fibers have greater covering
power then circular fibers.
14. Crimp: Waviness along the fiber length. Some natural fibers e.g. wool, have a natural crimp. In
synthetic polymeric fibers crimp can be introduced by passing the filament between rollers
having teeth. Crimp can also be introduced by chemical means. This is done by controlling the
coagulation of the filament to produce an asymmetrical cross-section.
15. Denier: A unit of linear density. It is the weight in grams of 9000m long yarn. This unit is
commonly used in the US textile industry.
16. Fabric: A kind of planar fibrous assembly. It allows the high degree of anisotropy characteristic
of yarn to be minimized, although not completely eliminated.
17. Felt: Homogeneous fibrous structure made by interlocking fibers via application of heat,
moisture and pressure.
18. Filament: Continuous fiber, i.e. fiber with aspect ratio approaching infinity.
19. Fill: see Weft.
20. Handle: Also known as softness of handle. It is a function of denier (or tex), compliance, crosssection, crimp, moisture absorption, and surface roughness of the fiber.
21. Knitted fabric: One set of yarn is looped and interlocking to form a planar structure.
22. Knitting: This involves drawing loops of yarns over previous loops, also called interlooping.
23. Mat: Randomly dispersed chopped fibers or continuous fiber strands, held together with a
binder. The binder can be resin compatible, if the mat is to be used to make a polymeric
composite.
24. Microfibers: Also known as microdenier fibers. These are fibers having less than 1denier per
filament (or less than 0.11 tex per filament). Fabrics made of such microfibers have superior silk-

25.
26.

27.
28.
29.

30.
31.
32.

33.
34.
35.
36.

37.

38.

like handle and dense construction. They find applications in stretch fabrics, lingerie, rain wear,
etc.
Monofilament: A large diameter continuous fiber, generally, with a diameter greater than 100
m.
Nonwovens: Randomly arranged fibers without making fiber yarns. Nonwovens can be formed
by spunbonding, resinbonding, or needle punching. A planar sheet-like fabric is produced from
fibers without going through the yarns spinning step. Chemical bonding and/or mechanical
interlocking is achieved. Fibers (continuous or staple) are dispersed in a fluid (i.e. a liquid or air)
and laid in a sheet-like planar form on a support and then chemically bonded or mechanically
interlocked. Paper is perhaps the best example of a wet laid nonwoven fabric where we generally
use wood or cellulosic fibers. In spunbonded nonwovens, continuous fibers are extruded and
collected in random planar network and bonded.
Particle: Extreme case of a fibrous form: it has a more or less equiaxial form, i.e. the aspect ratio
is about 1.
Plaiting: see Braiding.
Rayon: Term use to designate any of the regenerated fibers made by the viscose,
cuprammonium, or acetate processes. They are considered to be natural fibers because they are
made from regenerated, natural cellulose.
Retting: A biological process of degrading pectin and lignin associated with vegetable fibers,
loosening the stem and fibers, followed by their separation.
Ribbon: Fiber of rectangular cross-section with width to thickness ratio greater than 4.
Rope: Linear flexible structure with a minimum diameter of 4mm. it generally has three strands
twisted together in a helix. The rope characteristics are defined by two parameters, unit mass and
break length. Unit mass is simply g/m or ktex, while breaking length is the length of rope that will
break under the force of its own weight when freely suspended. Thus, break length equals mass at
break/unit mass.
Roving: A bundle of yarns or tows of continuous filaments (twisted or untwisted).
Spinneret: A vessel with numerous shaped holes at the bottom through which a material in
molten state is forced out in the form of fine filaments or threads.
Spunbonding: Process of producing a bond between nonwoven fibers by heating the fibers to
near their melting point.
Staple fiber: Fibers having short, discrete lengths (10-400 mm long) that can be spun into a yarn
are called staple fibers. This spinning quality can be improved if the fiber is imparted a waviness
or crimp. Staple fibers are excellent for providing bulkiness for filling, filtration, etc. Frequently,
staple natural fibers, e.g. cotton or wool, are blended with staple synthetic fibers, e.g. nylon or
polyester, to obtain the best of both types.
Tenacity: A measure of fiber strength that is commonly used in the textile industry. Commonly,
the units are gram-force per denier, gram-force per tex, or Newton per tex. It is a specific strength
unit, i.e. there is a factor of density involved. Thus, although the tensile strength of glass fiber is
more than double that of nylon fiber, both glass and nylon fiber have a tenacity of about 6g/den.
This is because the density of glass is about twice that of nylon.
Tex: A unit of linear density. It is the weight in grams of 1000m of yarn. Tex is commonly used
in Europe.

39. Tow: Bundle of twisted or untwisted continuous fibers. A tow may contain tens or hundreds of
thousands of individual filaments.
40. Twist: the angle of twist that individual filaments may have about the yarn axis. Most yarns have
filaments twisted because it is easier to handle a twisted yarn then an untwisted one.
41. Wire: Metallic filament.
42. Warp: Lengthwise yarn in a woven fabric.
43. Weft: Transverse yarn in a woven fabric. Also called fill.
44. Whisker: Tiny, whisker-like fiber (a few mm long, a few m in diameter) that is a single crystal
and almost free of dislocations. Note that this term involves a material requirement. The small
size and crystalline perfection make whiskers extremely strong, approaching the theoretical
strength.
45. Woven fabric: Flat, drapeable sheet made by interlacing yarns or tows.
46. Woven roving: Heavy, drapeable fabric woven from continuous rovings.
47. Yarn: A generic term for a bundle of untwisted or twisted fibers (short or continuous). A yarn can
be produced from staple fibers by yarn spinning. The yarn spinning process consists of some fiber
alignment, followed by locking together by twisting. Continuous synthetic fibers are also used to
make yarns. Continuous fibers are easy to align parallel to the yarn axis. Generally, the degree of
twist is low, just enough to give some interfilament cohesion.
What are the advantages of the composite materials?
The following are the advantages of composites:
1. Specific stiffness and specific strength:
The composite materials have high specific stiffness and strengths. Thus, these material offer
better properties at lesser weight as compared to conventional materials. Due to this, one gets
improved performance at reduced energy consumption.
2. Tailorable design:
A large set of design parameters are available to choose from. Thus, making the design
procedure more versatile. The available design parameters are:
1. Choice of materials (fiber/matrix), volume fraction of fiber and matrix, fabrication
method, layer orientation, no. of layer/laminae in a given direction, thickness of
individual layers, type of layers (fabric/unidirectional) stacking sequence.
2. A component can be designed to have desired properties in specific directions.
3. Fatigue Life:
The composites can with stand more number of fatigue cycles than that of aluminum. The
critical structural components in aircraft require high fatigue life. The use of composites in
fabrication of such structural components is thus justified.
4. Dimensional Stability:
Strain due to temperature can change shape, size, increase friction, wear and thermal stresses.
The dimensional stability is very important in application like space antenna. For composites,
with proper design it is possible to achieve almost zero coefficient of thermal expansion.
5. Corrosion Resistance:
Polymer and ceramic matrix material used to make composites have high resistance to
corrosion from moisture, chemicals.
6. Cost Effective Fabrication:

The components fabricated from composite are cost effective with automated methods like
filament winding, pultrusion and tape laying. There is a lesser wastage of the raw materials as
the product is fabricated to the final product size unlike in metals.
7. Conductivity:
The conductivity of the composites can be achieved to make it a insulator or a highly
conducting material. For example, Glass/polyesters are non conducting materials. These
materials can be used in space ladders, booms etc. where one needs higher dimensional
stability, whereas copper matrix material gives a high thermal conductivity.
The list of advantages of composite is quite long. One can find more on advantages of composite in
reference books and open literature.
What are the disadvantages of Composites?
1. Some fabrics are very hard on tooling.
2. Hidden defects are difficult to locate.
3. Inspection may require special tools and processes.
4. Filament-wound parts may not be repairable. Repairing may introduce new problems.
What are the applications of the composite materials?
The applications of the composites are given in the following as per the area of application.
Aerospace:
Aircraft, spacecraft, satellites, space telescopes, space shuttle, space station, missiles, boosters
rockets, helicopters (due to high specific strength and stiffness) fatigue life, dimensional stability.
All composite voyager aircraft flew nonstop around the world with refueling.
Carbon/carbon composite is used on the leading edges nose cone of the shuttle.
B2 bomber - both fiber glass and graphite fibers are used with epoxy matrix and polyimide
matrix.
The indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA - Tejas) has Kevlar composite in nose cone, Glass
composites in tail fin and carbon composites form almost all part of the fuselage and wings,
except the control surfaces of the wing.

Further, the indigenous Light Combat Helicopter (LCH Dhruvh) has carbon composites for its
main rotor blades. The other composites are used in tail rotor, vertical fin, stabilizer, cowling,
radome, doors, cockpit, side shells, etc.
Missile:
Rocket motor cases
Nozzles
Igniter
Inter stage structure
Equipment section
Aerodynamic fairings
Launch Vehicle:
Rocket motor case
Interstage structure
Payload fairings and dispensers
High temperature Nozzle
Nose cone
Control surfaces
Composite Railway Carrier:
Composite railway auto carrier
Bodies of Railway Bogeys
Seats
Drivers Cabin
Stabilization of Ballasted Rail Tracks
Doors
Sleepers for Railway Girder Bridges
Gear Case
Pantographs
Sports Equipments
Tennis rockets, golf clubs, base-ball bats, helmets, skis, hockey sticks, fishing rods, boat hulls,
wind surfing boards, water skis, sails, canoes and racing shells, paddles, yachting rope, speed
boat, scuba diving tanks, race cars reduced weight, maintenance, corrosion resistance.
Automotive
Lower weight and greater durability, corrosion resistance, fatigue life, wear and impact resistance.
Drive shafts, fan blades and shrouds, springs, bumpers, interior panels, tires, brake shoes, clutch
plates, gaskets, hoses, belts and engine parts.
Carbon and glass fiber composites pultruted over on aluminum cylinder to create drive shaft.
Fuel saving braking energy can be stored in to a carbon fiber super flywheels.
Other applications include: mirror housings, radiator end caps, air filter housing, accelerating
pedals, rear view mirrors, head-lamp housings, and intake manifolds, fuel tanks.
Infrastructure Structures:
Corrosion is a major design consideration such as in the chemical and on off- shore oil plate
forms
Skeletal Structures
Walls and Panels

Doors, Windows, Ladders, Staircases

Chemical and Water Tanks
Cooling Towers, Bridge Decks, Antenna Dishes, Bridge enclosures
Aerodynamic fairings
Industrial:
Drive,
conveyer belts,
hoses,
tear and puncture resistant fabrics,
rotor vanes,
mandrels,
ropes,
Cables.
Medical:
Wheelchairs,
Crutches, Hip joints,
Heat valves, Dentistry,
Surgical equipments
Electronic:
Chips in electronic computing devices are laminated hybrid systems composed of a number of
layers (materials) which serve different functions.
Chip must have good heat transfer properties and must be able to withstand induced thermal
stresses without delaminating.
The composite finds a vast usage in electronic packaging materials. The Styrofoam, particle
bonded materials formed from paper pulp, air-bubble cushioned plastic sheets, etc. are some of
the popular materials used in the packing.
Military:
Helmets,
bullet proof vests, impact resistant vehicles,
Lighter and less detectable ships, portable bridges.
Marine:
The Glass reinforced fibre plastics are used in:
Ship and Boat Hulls
Masts, Instrument Panels
Hydrofoils, Hovercrafts
Propellers, Propulsion shafts
Rudders, Heat exchangers
Flywheel
Piping, Ventilation ducts
Engine and equipment foundations
Wind Power Engineering:
Rotor blades including blade shell, integral webs, spars or box structure.
Mast, Generator housing

Mechanical Properties

Compressive strength : stress a material can withstand before compressive failure (MPa)

Creep : the slow and gradual deformation of an object with respect to time

Ductility : Ability of a material to deform under tensile load (% elongation)

Fatigue limit : Maximum stress a material can withstand under repeated loading (MPa)

Flexural modulus : is the ratio of stress to strain in flexural deformation, or the tendency for a material
to bend. It is determined from the slope of a stress-strain curve produced by a flexural test and uses units
of force per area. It is an intensive property.

Flexural strength : also known as modulus of rupture, bend strength, or fracture strength, a mechanical
parameter for brittle material, is defined as a material's ability to resist deformation under load.

Fracture toughness : Energy absorbed by unit area before the fracture of material (J/m^2)

Hardness : Ability to withstand surface indentation (e.g. Brinnell hardness number)

Plasticity (physics) : Ability of a material to undergo irreversible deformations (-)

Poisson's ratio : Ratio of lateral strain to axial strain (no units)

Resilience : Ability of a material to absorb energy when it is deformed elastically (M Pa)

Shear modulus : Ratio of shear stress to shear strain (M Pa)

Shear strain :in the angle between two perpendicular lines in a plane

Shear strength : Maximum shear stress a material can withstand

Specific modulus : Modulus per unit volume (M Pa/ m^3)

Specific strength : Strength per unit density (Nm/kg)

Specific weight : Weight per unit volume (N/m^3)

Tensile strength : Maximum tensile stress a material can withstand before failure (MPa)

Yield strength : The stress at which a material starts to yield (MPa)

Young's modulus : Ratio of linear stress to linear strain (MPa)

Coefficient of friction (also depends on surface finish)

Coefficient of restitution :

Surface roughness : often shortened to roughness, is a component of surface texture. It is quantified

by the vertical deviations of a real surface from its ideal form. If these deviations are large, the surface is
rough; if they are small, the surface is smooth.