Properties for Design of Composite Structures: Theory and Implementation Using Software

The effective properties of composite materials, such as thermoelastic and conductive,
depend upon the nature of many materials’ characteristics, which are needed to account
for the composite structure, e.g. particulate or fibre reinforcement, unidirectional plies
or multi-layered laminates. Account also must be taken of the resultant anisotropies
that are often required when designing three-dimensional engineering components.
Indeed, the properties of some constituents can be anisotropic themselves, such as carbon
fibres and the individual plies of laminates. The accurate experimental determination
of these properties is rarely, if ever, achieved in practice, and this leads on to the
need for reliable estimation methods using analytical and/or numerical methods.
It is emphasised here that this book is not intended to be a reference text. The principal
objective is to provide readers with a single source for a wealth of analytical
methods and explicit formulae that can be used to estimate the effective properties of
a wide range of composite types for both undamaged and damaged states. Readers
wishing to track in more detail the historical development of composite theory will
need to consult the literature, possibly starting with the limited number of references
included in this book.