Composite Materials

Through ages, man have become more

innovative in discovering new materials,
cost reduction techniques aiding life to exist
far more better.
What is a composite material?
 often shortened to composites or called
composition materials, are engineered or
naturally occurring materials made from
two or more constituent materials with
significantly different physical or chemical
properties which remain separate and
distinct at the macroscopic or microscopic
scale within the finished structure.
 two materials in which one of the
materials, called the reinforcing phase, is
in the form of fibers, sheets, or
particles, and is embedded in the other
materials called the matrix phase. The
reinforcing material and the matrix
material can be metal, ceramic, or
polymer. Composites are used because
overall properties of the composites are
superior to those of the individual
components.
 Wattle and daub is one
of the oldest manmade
composite materials, at
over 6000 years old.
Concrete is also a
composite material,
and is used more than
any other man-made
material in the world.
As of 2006, about 7.5
billion cubic metres of
concrete are made
each year—more than
one cubic metre for
every person on Earth.
 Types of Composites
 Particle-reinforced composites

 Fiber-reinforced composites

 Structural composites
 Particle-reinforced composites
* Used in particle reinforcing
- ceramics, glasses (small mineral
particles)
- metal particles (aluminium, and
amorphous materials ) polymers
and carbon black
 Why particles are used?
 Particles
are used to increase the
modulus of the matrix, to decrease
the permeability of the matrix, to
decrease the ductility of the
matrix and also used to produce
inexpensive composites.
Example:
 CONCRETE where the aggregtes ( sand and
gravel) are the particles and cement is the
matrix. Particle reinforced composites support
higher tensile, compressive and shear stresses.
 Fiber-reinforced composites
 Fiber-reinforced Composites are made
of:
- metals, ceramics, glasses, or polymers that
have been turned into graphite and known as
carbon fibers.
- Fibers increase the modulus of the matrix
material. (strong covalent bonds along the fiber's
length gives them a very high modulus in this
direction because to break or extend the fiber the
bonds must also be broken or moved )
Uses of Fiber-reinforced composites
 sports equipment, such as a time-trial racing bicycle
frame which consists of carbon fibers in a thermoset
polymer matrix. Body parts of race cars and some
automobiles are composites made of glass fibers (or
fiberglass) in a thermoset matrix

Fiber orientation in
fiber reinforced
composites.
 Structural composites
 Theproperties of
structural
composites
depend on:
- Constituents
- Geometrical design
Common Composite Materials
< ASPHALT

FIBER GLASS >

< CEMENT

PLYWOOD>