This pioneering book presents new models for the thermomechanical behavior of composite materials and structures taking into account internal physico-chemical transformations such as thermodecomposition, sublimation and melting at high temperatures (up to 3000 K). It is of great importance for the design of new thermostable materials and for the investigation of reliability and fire safety of composite structures. It also supports the investigation of interaction of composites with laser irradiation and the design of heat-shield systems. Structural methods are presented for calculating the effective mechanical and thermal properties of matrices, fibres and unidirectional, reinforced by dispersed particles and textile composites, in terms of properties of their constituent phases. Useful calculation methods are developed for characteristics such as the rate of thermomechanical erosion of composites under high-speed flow and the heat deformation of composites with account of chemical shrinkage. The author expansively compares modeling results with experimental data, and readers will find unique experimental results on mechanical and thermal properties of composites under temperatures up to 3000 K. Chapters show how the behavior of composite shells under high temperatures is simulated by the finite-element method and so cylindrical and axisymmetric composite shells and composite plates are investigated under local high-temperature heating. The book will be of interest to researchers and to engineers designing composite structures, and invaluable to materials scientists developing advanced performance thermostable materials.

This pioneering book presents new models for the thermomechanical behavior of composite materials, taking into account internal physico-chemical transformations such as thermodecomposition, sublimation, and melting at high temperatures. It collects unique experimental results on mechanical and thermal properties of composites at temperatures up to 2000°C.

The authors explain the changes in the thermophysical and thermomechanical properties of polymer composites under elevated temperatures and fire conditions. Using microscale physical and chemical concepts they allow researchers to find reliable solutions to their engineering needs on the macroscale. In a unique combination of experimental results and quantitative models, a framework is developed to realistically predict the behavior of a variety of polymer composite materials over a wide range of thermal and mechanical loads. In addition, the authors treat extreme fire scenarios up to more than 1000?C for two hours, presenting heat-protection methods to improve the fire resistance of composite materials and full-scale structural members, and discuss their performance after fire exposure. Thanks to the microscopic approach, the developed models are valid for a variety of polymer composites and structural members, making this work applicable to a wide audience, including materials scientists, polymer chemists, engineering scientists in industry, civil engineers, mechanical engineers, and those working in the industry of civil infrastructure.

Micro and Nanophased Polymeric Composites: Durability Assessment in Engineering Applications provides a comprehensive review of in-service environmental damage and degradation studies of FRP composites in a broad range of different applications. End-users such as academic and industrial researchers and materials scientists and engineers working in the design, analysis, and manufacture of composite material systems will be able to identify the possible superior advantages and limitations of FRP composites in various applications. Particular emphasis is given on the identification of various failure micro-mechanisms leading to unprecedented failure in different harsh and hostile environments. Divided into two distinct parts, the first section focuses on fundamentals, with key chapters on the main constituents of FRP composites, mechanical properties, characterization techniques, and processing and fabrication techniques. Part two focuses on polymer composites under different in-service applications, including the marine and space environment, chemical and corrosive environments, high and low temperature environments, and other critical environments. Covers various micro-mechanisms of failure under different environmental conditions, including moisture diffusion kinetics and the effects of aging parameters on microstructures Discusses the impact of different nanoscale reinforcements on the environmental durability of conventional FRP composites Presents a comprehensive approach with widespread applications such as low earth orbit space environments and different corrosive environments

The question whether a structure or a machine component can carry the applied loads, and with which margin of safety, or whether it will become unserviceable due to collapse or excessive inelastic deformations, has always been a major concern for civil and mechanical engineers. The development of methods to answer this technologically crucial question without analysing the evolution of the system under varying loads, has a long tradition that can be traced back even to the times of emerging mechanical sciences in the early 17th century. However, the scientific foundations of the theories underlying these methods, nowadays frequently called "direct", were established sporadically in the Thirties of the 20th century and systematically and rigorously in the Fifties. Further motivations for the development of direct analysis techniques in applied mechanics of solids and structures arise from the circumstance that in many engineering situations the external actions fluctuate according to time histories not a priori known except for some essential features, e.g. variation intervals. In such situations the critical events (or "limit states") to consider, besides plastic collapse, are incremental collapse (or "ratchetting") and alternating plastic yielding, namely lack of "shakedown". Non evolutionary, direct methods for ultimate limit state analysis of structures subjected to variably-repeated external actions are the objectives of most papers collected in this book, which also contains a few contributions on related topics.