Composite Materials: Mechanical Behavior and Structural Analysis

This book presents a clear and comprehensive treatment of all the tools needed to model the mechanical behavior of composite materials, to analyze laminate and and sandwich structures, and to apply the results to problems of strutural design (bending, buckling and vibrations). The treatment emphasizes comparisons between the models and the actual behavior of materials and structures. The first part provides an introduction to composite materials, their properties, and basic concepts of manufacture. The second part develops the mathematical methods of continuum mechanics needed to develop a mechanical analysis of composite materials. In the third part the author turns to the micromechanics of composite materials, comparing theory to experimental results, and considers mechanisms of fracture and damage. The fourth part discusses laminate and sandwich plates, developing the classical theory and then discussing applications such as cloth-reinforced materials and analyzing the influence of shear. The fifth part treats bending, buckling, and vibration of composite structures, both beams and plates. The book concludes with a chapter on design of laminate structures, synthesizing the concepts developed in the book.