Materials and Applications

Composites

Composites
Introduction In its simplest form a composite consists of two dissimilar materials in which one material forms the matrix to bond together the other reinforcement materials. The concept of composite materials is ancient. An example is adding straw to mud for building stronger mud walls. In this case the straw acts as a reinforcement material and the mud acts as a matrix which binds everything together. In a modern composite the reinforcement material is in the form of rods, strands, fibres or particles, which is bound together in the matrix material.

Classification of Composites
There are three main divisions of composites - particle reinforcement, fibrereinforcement and structural

Composites

Particle reinforced

Fibre reinforced

Structural

Small particles

large particles Continuous (long fibres)

Laminates

Sandwich panels

Discontinuous (short fibres)

Uni-directional

Multi-directional

Aligned

Randomly orientated

Fibre reinforced Composites

Lets take a closer look at fibre reinforced composites. The fibers can be in the form of long continuous fibers, or they can be discontinuous (short) fibers. They can be randomly distributed, aligned in a single direction or even weaved sheets. Fibre reinforced

Continuous (long)

Discontinuous (short)

Uni-directional

Multi-directional

Aligned

Randomly orientated

Fibre reinforced Composites

There are a number of different factors that influence the strength of fibre reinforced composites. These are the length and orientation of the fibres. Brittle fibres are usually combined with ductile matrix materials, such as polymers, to make them stiffer. Consider the separate stress-strain curves for a brittle and a ductile material. The brittle fibres are stiffer than the matrix material. Stress
Brittle Fibre

Ductile Matrix

Strain

Fibre reinforced Composites

If the brittle fibres and the ductile matrix were to be combined into a composite and loaded in tension (left image), it would be stiffer than the matrix material as shown in the stress-strain curve (right image)

Stress

Brittle Fibre

Force

composite

Ductile Matrix

Force
Strain

Fibre reinforced Composites

Initially the brittle fibres and ductile matrix both deform elastically in the composite, which is why the curve is linear. When the ductile matrix reaches its yield strain(ym), the brittle fibres in the composite begin to bear most of the load. Eventually the fibres will reach their failure strain f and the composite will fail
Stress

ym f

Strain

Fibre reinforced Composites

In this group of composites, the fiber is the primary load-bearing component. Wood is a natural composite because it contains cellulose fibres (reinforcement) bound together by a natural substance called lignin (matrix). We can see that the fibres in wood are the main contributor towards stiffness and strength. Therefore the reinforcement materials (fibres) are responsible for maintaining strength and not the matrix.

Fibre reinforced Composites

Glass Reinforced Plastics (GRP) This important composite material is produced when a plastic material, usually polyester resin, is reinforced with glass fibres in strand or mat/fabric form. When glass fibres are embedded in a polymer matrix, it produces a composite that is high in strength but low in weight. The resin is used to provide shape, colour and finish, whilst the glass fibres, which are laid in all directions, improve mechanical strength.

Fibre reinforced Composites

Glass Reinforced Plastics Glass is the most common and inexpensive fiber and is usually use for the reinforcement of polymer matrices. Glass has a high tensile strength and fairly low density. Fibreglass is simply a composite of glass fibres, either continuous or discontinuous, contained within a polymer matrix. Glass is popular as a fibre-reinforcement for several reasons: 1. It is easily drawn into long-fibres from a molten state (left image) 2. These fibres can be woven into a fabric (right image) 3. It is readily available and can be fabricated into a glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) economically using a a wide variety of composite manufacturing techniques.

Fibre reinforced Composites

Carbon fiber reinforced Plastics (CFRP) Carbon fibres have higher elastic modulus and lower density than glass fibres and are used to reinforce composite materials having a higher strength to weight ratio. Several thousand carbon fibers are twisted together to form a yarn, which may be used by itself or woven into a fabric (left image) The carbon fibres are also used to reinforce polymeric materials and moulded into shapes for a wide range of light weight but high strength applications (right image). These included, racing car body panels, high performance tennis racket frames, and high performance golf shafts. The downside is that it is much more expensive than GRP

Fibre reinforced Composites

Reinforced Concrete The word fibre in fact covers a broad range of sizes from thick steel rods used to reinforce concrete to thin thread-like glass fibres used in fiberglass. For example steel rods are used to reinforce concrete, this can be called fibre reinforcement. The steel rods used as a reinforcement will have a high stiffness and strength in tension, but little resistance to buckling and bending under compression loads.
Thin steel rod has high tensile strength Thin steel rod easily bends or buckles under compression

The concrete, on the other hand, used as a matrix material has high resistance to compressive loads but is weak under tensile loads. If these materials are combined into a composite, it will have both high tensile and compressive strength.

Fibre Reinforced Composites

Reinforced Concrete When a beam is loaded causing it to bend, it experiences compression on the top surface and tension on the bottom (left image). If the beam was purely made of concrete it will begin to crack on the tension side where it is weakest (right image). This was a problem for concrete lintels the concrete beams we see above door frames.

Fibre Reinforced Composites

Reinforced Concrete Designers overcame the problem of concrete lintels cracking under tension by embedding the concrete with steel rods close to the bottom surface where the beam experiences most tension under bending. This means that the steel rods will resist tension on the bottom surface and thus prevent bending.

Steel bars resist tensile loads

Large-Particle reinforced Composites

Concrete A common example is concrete which is a composite of mortar made from cement and sand, and an aggregate of stone chips. Concrete is a large particle reinforced concrete because the stone chips are generally large. In this case the mortar is the matrix material and the stones is the reinforcement material. Remember, the reinforcement is bound to the matrix, in the same way our stones are bound to the mortar matrix.

Particle reinforced Composites

Ceramic Reinforced metals (Cerments) A mixture of metal and ceramic powders is compressed in dies to form powder compacts. These are then sintered in a furnace. In this case the metal matrix is reinforced by the ceramic particles. The metal matrix provides the composite with ductility and toughness whilst the ceramic particles improves compressive strength and hardness. The resulting composite is used for cutting tools. Particle reinforced composites are much easier and less costly than making fiber reinforced composites. With polymeric matrices, the particles are simply added to the polymer melt in an extruder or injection molder during polymer processing. Similarly, reinforcing particles are added to a molten metal before it is cast.

Isotropy and Anisotropy in Composites

Many materials such as metals and polymers are said to be isotropic. That is, there mechanical properties do not depend on the direction of loading. For example if we took two sheets of steel and loaded them it in two different directions, the stiffness and strength would be the same. This is because steel and metals in general are homogeneous (similar throughout).
Force Force Force

Force

Composite materials are typically anisotropic (opposite to isotropic). That is, their properties do depend upon the direction of loading. This is because composites are: 1) inhomogeneous as the material is not the same throughout 2) fibres in the composite are often orientated in a specific direction.

Isotropy and Anisotropy in Composites

Influence of fibre orientation and direction The direction of the embedded fibres in a composite are an important factor which determine the strength of the material. For example, if we load a composite in the direction of alignment of the fibres i.e. the longitudinal direction (left image). And lets also consider the case where the composite is loaded in the direction perpendicular to the fibres i.e. the transverse direction (right image). The loading in the longitudinal direction would be considerably stiffer and stronger than the transverse direction since the you are putting the fibres under tensile stress. In the transverse direction, it is the weaker matrix material that experiences the tensile stress. Force
Loading in longitudinal direction

Force

Force

Loading in transverse direction

Force

Isotropy and Anisotropy in Composites

The obvious way to overcome this is to use reinforcement in other directions like our carbon fibre reinforced materials whit a woven mesh so that it would be strong in all or both directions. However, there is a reason why materials are made with fibres in one direction you can more efficiently pack fibres in parallel then in a mesh.

Reinforcement Area Fraction

The amount of reinforcement that can be used depends on the orientation of the fibres. With long strands laid parallel to one another, the reinforcement area fraction can be as high as 0.9 (or 90%). The reinforcement area fraction is the cross sectional area of the reinforcement divided by the total cross sectional area of the matrix. For woven fabrics the fraction can only be as high as 0.75 (or 75%). In general, the higher the fraction, the stringer the composite.

Reinforcement Area Fraction =

n Af Am

n is the number of fibre reinforcements Reinforcement area, Ar

Matrix Matrix area, Am

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Reinforcement Area Fraction

Example Calculate the Reinforcement area fraction for the objects given below. Note the fibres are laid parallel within the objects. Images not to scale

Diameter 0.9mm

3mm

Radius 0.5mm 10mm 10mm

Lamination
Introduction The strength of wood depends on the direction of the fibres or in other words the direction of the grain. In a piece of wood, you can see lines going in one direction; this direction is referred to as "with the grain". The wood is stronger with the grain than "against the grain". Wood, like many composites is anisotropic. That is, its stiffness and strength depends on direction. Force Force

With the grain

Against the grain

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Lamination - Plywood
This is where lamination comes into play. Plywood overcomes this anisotropy problem which exploits the directional strength of wood. Plywood was the first type of engineered wood to be invented. It is made from thin sheets of wood veneer, called plies or veneers, which are stacked together with the direction of each ply's grain differing from its neighbors by 90(cross-banding). The plies are bonded under heat and pressure with strong adhesives, making plywood a type of composite material. Another reason for using plywood instead of plain wood is its resistance to change (shrink, twist or warp).

Sandwich Panels
This structural composite is typically composed of a honeycomb structure sandwiched between two thin but stiff sheets (left image). The honeycomb structure reduces weight making the entire composite both stiff but low in density. Not used in heavy duty applications but rather as recyclable point-ofpurchase cardboard display units (right image).

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