Structural Integrity and Durability of Advanced Composites: Innovative Modelling Methods and Intelligent Design presents scientific and technological research from leading composite materials scientists and engineers that showcase the fundamental issues and practical problems that affect the development and exploitation of large composite structures. As predicting precisely where cracks may develop in materials under stress is an age old mystery in the design and building of large-scale engineering structures, the burden of testing to provide "fracture safe design" is imperative. Readers will learn to transfer key ideas from research and development to both the design engineer and end-user of composite materials. This comprehensive text provides the information users need to understand deformation and fracture phenomena resulting from impact, fatigue, creep, and stress corrosion cracking and how these phenomena can affect reliability, life expectancy, and the durability of structures. - Presents scientific and technological research from leading composite materials scientists and engineers that showcase fundamental issues and practical problems - Provides the information users need to understand deformation and fracture phenomena resulting from impact, fatigue, creep, and stress corrosion cracking - Enables readers to transfer key ideas from research and development to both the design engineer and end-user of composite materials

The automotive industry faces many challenges, including increased global competition, the need for higher-performance vehicles, a reduction in costs and tighter environmental and safety requirements. The materials used in automotive engineering play key roles in overcoming these issues: ultimately lighter materials mean lighter vehicles and lower emissions. Composites are being used increasingly in the automotive industry due to their strength, quality and light weight. Advanced Composite Materials for Automotive Applications: Structural Integrity and Crashworthiness provides a comprehensive explanation of how advanced composite materials, including FRPs, reinforced thermoplastics, carbon-based composites and many others, are designed, processed and utilized in vehicles. It includes technical explanations of composite materials in vehicle design and analysis and covers all phases of composite design, modelling, testing and failure analysis. It also sheds light on the performance of existing materials including carbon composites and future developments in automotive material technology which work towards reducing the weight of the vehicle structure. Key features: Chapters written by world-renowned authors and experts in their own fields Includes detailed case studies and examples covering all aspects of composite materials and their application in the automotive industries Unique topic integration between the impact, crash, failure, damage, analysis and modelling of composites Presents the state of the art in composite materials and their application in the automotive industry Integrates theory and practice in the fields of composite materials and automotive engineering Considers energy efficiency and environmental implications Advanced Composite Materials for Automotive Applications: Structural Integrity and Crashworthiness is a comprehensive reference for those working with composite materials in both academia and industry, and is also a useful source of information for those considering using composites in automotive applications in the future.

Advanced Composite Materials for Aerospace Engineering: Processing, Properties and Applications predominately focuses on the use of advanced composite materials in aerospace engineering. It discusses both the basic and advanced requirements of these materials for various applications in the aerospace sector, and includes discussions on all the main types of commercial composites that are reviewed and compared to those of metals. Various aspects, including the type of fibre, matrix, structure, properties, modeling, and testing are considered, as well as mechanical and structural behavior, along with recent developments. There are several new types of composite materials that have huge potential for various applications in the aerospace sector, including nanocomposites, multiscale and auxetic composites, and self-sensing and self-healing composites, each of which is discussed in detail. The book's main strength is its coverage of all aspects of the topics, including materials, design, processing, properties, modeling and applications for both existing commercial composites and those currently under research or development. Valuable case studies provide relevant examples of various product designs to enhance learning. - Contains contributions from leading experts in the field - Provides a comprehensive resource on the use of advanced composite materials in the aerospace industry - Discusses both existing commercial composite materials and those currently under research or development

Lightweight Composite Structures in Transport: Design, Manufacturing, Analysis and Performance provides a detailed review of lightweight composite materials and structures and discusses their use in the transport industry, specifically surface and air transport. The book covers materials selection, the properties and performance of materials, and structures, design solutions, and manufacturing techniques. A broad range of different material classes is reviewed with emphasis on advanced materials. Chapters in the first two parts of the book consider the lightweight philosophy and current developments in manufacturing techniques for lightweight composite structures in the transport industry, with subsequent chapters in parts three to five discussing structural optimization and analysis, properties, and performance of lightweight composite structures, durability, damage tolerance and structural integrity. Final chapters present case studies on lightweight composite design for transport structures. - Comprehensively covers materials selection, design solutions, manufacturing techniques, structural analysis, and performance of lightweight composite structures in the transport industry - Includes commentary from leading industrial and academic experts in the field who present cutting-edge research on advanced lightweight materials for the transport industry - Includes case studies on lightweight composite design for transport structures

Composite materials, with their higher exposure to dynamic loads, have increasingly been used in aerospace, naval, automotive, sports and other sectors over the last few decades. Dynamic Deformation, Damage and Fracture in Composite Materials and Structures reviews various aspects of dynamic deformation, damage and fracture, mostly in composite laminates and sandwich structures, in a broad range of application fields including aerospace, automotive, defense and sports engineering. As the mechanical behavior and performance of composites varies under different dynamic loading regimes and velocities, the book is divided into sections that examine the different loading regimes and velocities. Part one examine low-velocity loading and part two looks at high-velocity loading. Part three then assesses shock and blast (i.e. contactless) events and the final part focuses on impact (contact) events. As sports applications of composites are linked to a specific subset of dynamic loading regimes, these applications are reviewed in the final part. - Examines dynamic deformation and fracture of composite materials - Covers experimental, analytical and numerical aspects - Addresses important application areas such as aerospace, automotive, wind energy and defence, with a special section on sport applications

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) in Aerospace Structures provides readers with the spectacular progress that has taken place over the last twenty years with respect to the area of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM). The widespread adoption of SHM could both significantly improve safety and reduce maintenance and repair expenses that are estimated to be about a quarter of an aircraft fleet's operating costs. The SHM field encompasses transdisciplinary areas, including smart materials, sensors and actuators, damage diagnosis and prognosis, signal and image processing algorithms, wireless intelligent sensing, data fusion, and energy harvesting. This book focuses on how SHM techniques are applied to aircraft structures with particular emphasis on composite materials, and is divided into four main parts. Part One provides an overview of SHM technologies for damage detection, diagnosis, and prognosis in aerospace structures. Part Two moves on to analyze smart materials for SHM in aerospace structures, such as piezoelectric materials, optical fibers, and flexoelectricity. In addition, this also includes two vibration-based energy harvesting techniques for powering wireless sensors based on piezoelectric electromechanical coupling and diamagnetic levitation. Part Three explores innovative SHM technologies for damage diagnosis in aerospace structures. Chapters within this section include sparse array imaging techniques and phase array techniques for damage detection. The final section of the volume details innovative SHM technologies for damage prognosis in aerospace structures. This book serves as a key reference for researchers working within this industry, academic, and government research agencies developing new systems for the SHM of aerospace structures and materials scientists. - Provides key information on the potential of SHM in reducing maintenance and repair costs - Analyzes current SHM technologies and sensing systems, highlighting the innovation in each area - Encompasses chapters on smart materials such as electroactive polymers and optical fibers

Much of the early, pioneering work on the properties of composites under impact is still conceptually relevant, yet the results of many such analyses are outdated. The accuracy of these results depend specifically on the materials used (fibre, resin), interface, and method of fabrication. Development of new materials, cost effective design, and analysis and prediction of structural behaviour have all established a need for timely, wide ranging research on impact behaviour. Impact Behaviour of Fibre-Reinforced Composite Materials and Structures brings together - for the first time - state-of-the-art research from the most recent works of leading, international experts. An important new study, this book extensively investigates impact response, damage tolerance, and failure of fibre-reinforced composite materials and structure, from a number of expert viewpoints. This book explores the nature of modern polymer composites based on glass, carbon, aramid, ceramic and polymer fibres in a polymer matrix, and details various ways of analysing the impact process. Impact Behaviour of Fibre-Reinforced Composite Materials and Structures will prove itself a valuable tool for research and development engineers, structural engineers, materials scientists, designers, and students and researchers of related disciplines.