The Computer Methods in Composite Materials conferences bring together both engineers and scientists actively interested in this field. Featuring the proceedings of the sixth meeting, this text covers topics relating to simulation, modelling and experimentation of composite materials.

Contains a selection of papers that were presented at The Fifth International Conference on Computational Structures Technology and The Second International Conference on Engineering Computational Technology, which were held in Leuven, Belgium from 6-8 September 2000.

This book contains 31 papers presented at the symposium on "Recent Advances in Composite Materials" which was organized in honor of Professor Stephanos A. Paipetis. The symposium took place at Democritus University of Thrace, in Xanthi, Greece on June 12-14, 2003. The book is a tribute to Stephanos A. Paipetis, a pioneer of composite materials, in recognition of his continuous, original diversified and outstanding contributions for half a century. The book consists of invited papers written by leading experts in the field. It contains original contributions concerning the latest developments in composite materials. It covers a wide range of subjects including experimental characterization, analytical modeling and applications of composite materials. The papers are arranged in the following six sections: General concepts, stress and failure analysis, mechanical properties, metal matrix composites, structural analysis and applications of composite materials. The first section on general concepts contains seven papers dealing with composites through the pursuit of the consilience among them, computation and mechatronic automation of multiphysics research, a theory of anisotropic scattering, wave propagation, multi-material composite wedges, a three-dimensional finite element analysis around broken fibers and an in situ assessment of the micromechanics of large scale bridging in ceramic composites.

In this text researchers from research centres and industry present current advances in structural optimization. The 35 papers include the following topics: shape and topology; optimization; optimal control; advances in numerical optimization; and emergent applications of design optimization.

Mechanical properties of composite materials can be improved by tailoring their microstructures. Optimal microstructures of composites, which ensure desired properties of composite materials, can be determined in computational experiments. The subject of this book is the computational analysis of interrelations between mechanical properties (e.g., strength, damage resistance stiffness) and microstructures of composites. The methods of mesomechanics of composites are reviewed, and applied to the modelling of the mechanical behaviour of different groups of composites. Individual chapters are devoted to the computational analysis of the microstructure- mechanical properties relationships of particle reinforced composites, functionally graded and particle clusters reinforced composites, interpenetrating phase and unidirectional fiber reinforced composites, and machining tools materials.