Plastics and rubber technology, Plastics, Reinforced materials, Glass, Glass fibres, Polymers, Composite materials, Bend testing, Test specimens, Dimensions, Testing conditions

Air transport engineering, Plastics, Glass fibres, Reinforced materials, Bend testing, Flexibility, Bending stress, Modulus of elasticity, Failure (mechanical), Test equipment, Test specimens, Dimensions, Testing conditions

This book is concerned with the often very complex problems composite materials can present in the testing of their structural performance.

Mechanical and Physical Testing of Biocomposites, Fibre-Reinforced Composites and Hybrid Composites covers key aspects of fracture and failure in natural/synthetic fiber reinforced polymer based composite materials, ranging from crack propagation, to crack growth, and from notch-size effect, to damage-tolerant design. Topics of interest include mechanical properties, such as tensile, flexural, compression, shear, impact, fracture toughness, low and high velocity impact, and anti-ballistic properties of natural fiber, synthetic fibers and hybrid composites materials. It also covers physical properties, such as density, water absorption, thickness swelling, and void content of composite materials fabricated from natural or synthetic materials. Written by leading experts in the field, and covering composite materials developed from different natural fibers and their hybridization with synthetic fibers, the book's chapters provide cutting-edge, up-to-date research on the characterization, analysis and modelling of composite materials. - Contains contributions from leading experts in the field - Discusses recent progress on failure analysis, SHM, durability, life prediction and the modelling of damage in natural fiber-based composite materials - Covers experimental, analytical and numerical analysis - Provides detailed and comprehensive information on mechanical properties, testing methods and modelling techniques

The potential application areas for polymer composites are vast. While techniques and methodologies for composites design are relatively well established, the knowledge and understanding of post-design issues lag far behind. This leads to designs and eventually composites with disappointing properties and unnecessarily high cost, thus impeding a wider industrial acceptance of polymer composites. Manufacturing of Polymer Composites completely covers pre- and post-design issues. While the book enables students to become fully comfortable with composites as a possible materials choice, it also provides sufficient knowledge about manufacturing-related issues to permit them to avoid common pitfalls and unmanufacturable designs. The book is a fully comprehensive text covering all commercially significant materials and manufacturing techniques while at the same time discussing areas of research and development that are nearing commercial reality.

Textile composites encompass a rather narrow range of materials, based on three-dimensional reinforcements produced using specialist equipment. This book describes the design, manufacture and applications of textile composites. The intention is to describe the broad range of polymer composite materials with textile reinforcements, from woven and non-crimp commodity fabrics to 3-D textiles and their applications. The book gives particular attention to the modelling of textile structures, composites manufacturing methods, and subsequent component performance. This practical book is an invaluable guide for manufacturers of polymer composite components, end-users and designers, structural materials researchers, and textile manufacturers involved in the development of new products with textile composites.