The combination of materials to form a new material system with enhanced material properties is a well documented historical fact. For example, the ancient Jewish workers during their tenure under the Pharaohs used chopped straws in bricks as a means of enhancing their structural integrity. The Japanese Samurai warriors were known to use laminated metals in the forging of their swords to obtain desirable material properties. Even certain artisans from the Mediterranean and Far East used a form of composite technology in molding art works which were fabricated by layering cut paper in various sizes for producing desired shapes and contours.

Introduction To Composite Materials

Electrospun nanofiber reinforced composites: a review

Emerged in the middle of 20th century, composite materials are now one of the hotspot research topics in the modern technology. Their promising characteristics make them suitable for enormous applications in industrial field such as aerospace, automotive, construction, sports, bio-medical and many others. These materials reveal remarkable structural and mechanical properties such as high strength to weight ratio, resistance to chemicals, fire, corrosion and wear; being economical to manufacture. Herein, an overview of composite materials, their characterization, classification and main advantages linked to physical and mechanical properties based on the recent studies are presented. There, were presented the conventional manufacturing techniques of composite and their applications. It was highlighted the tremendous need to discovery new generation of composites that should incorporate the synthetic or natural materials by implementing new efficient manufacturing processes. In the combination of matrix and reinforcement materials, the use of natural materials as constituent are compulsory in order to obtain a complete material degradable as environmentally friendly.

Recent progress of reinforcement materials: a comprehensive overview of composite materials

On the free vibration analysis of laminated composite and sandwich plates: A review of recent literature with some numerical results

A new shear deformation theory for sandwich and composite plates is developed. The proposed displacement field, which is “m” parameter dependent, is assessed by performing several computations of the plate governing equations. Therefore, the present theory, which gives accurate results, is relatively close to 3D elasticity bending solutions. The theory accounts for adequate distribution of the transverse shear strains through the plate thickness and tangential stress-free boundary conditions on the plate boundary surface, thus a shear correction factor is not required. Plate governing equations and boundary conditions are derived by employing the principle of virtual work. The Navier-type exact solutions for static bending analysis are presented for sinusoidally and uniformly distributed loads. The accuracy of the present theory is ascertained by comparing it with various available results in the literature.

P Burchill

Papers

Review of advanced composite structures for naval ships and submarines