Special Issue Failure Criteria In Fibre Reinforced Polymer Composites

Fiber reinforced polymer composites are an extremely broad and versatile class of material.Their high strength coupled with lightweight leads to their use wherever structural efficiency is at a premium. Applications can be found in aircraft, process plants, sporting goods and military equipment. However they are heterogeneous in construction and antisotropic, which makes making strength prediction extremely difficult especially compared to that of a metal. This book brings together the results of a 12year worldwide failure exercise encompassing 19 theories in a single volume. Each contributor describes their own theory and employs it to solve 14 challenging problems. The accuracy of predictions and the performance of the theories are assessed and recommendations made on the uses of the theories in engineering design. All the necessary information is provided for the methodology to be readily employed for validating and benchmarking new theories as they emerge. Brings together 19 failure theories, with many application examples. Compares the leading failure theories with one another and with experimental data Failure to apply these theories could result in potentially unsafe designs or over design.

The objective of the May 1999 symposium from which these 29 papers were drawn was to bring together practitioners and theoreticians in the composite structural mechanics field to better understand the needs and limitations each group works with. Papers are organized under seven general headings: str

Highlights the recent developments in the fundamental understanding of composites; important information for researchers and composite scientists.

This book, consisting of 21 articles, including three review papers, written by research groups of experts in the field, considers recent research on reinforced polymer composites. Most of them relate to the fiber-reinforced polymer composites, which are a real hot topic in the field. Depending on the reinforcing fiber nature, such composites are divided into synthetic and natural fiber-reinforced ones. Synthetic fibers, such as carbon, glass, or basalt, provide more stiffness, while natural fibers, such as jute, flax, bamboo, kenaf, and others, are inexpensive and biodegradable, making them environmentally friendly. To acquire the benefits of design flexibility and recycling possibilities, natural reinforcers can be hybridized with small amounts of synthetic fibers to make them more desirable for technical applications. Elaborated composites have great potential as structural materials in automotive, marine and aerospace application, as fire resistant concrete, in bridge systems, as mechanical gear pair, as biomedical materials for dentistry and orthopedic application and tissue engineering, as well as functional materials such as proton-exchange membranes, biodegradable superabsorbent resins and polymer electrolytes.