engineering composites (rus. композиты, конструкционные otherwise конструкционные композиционные материалы) — composites, consisting of a matrix and reinforcing elements in the form of fibres or particles.

Description

This is a modern definition. When this term appeared for the first time in technical discourse in the middle of the 19th century, it was related to the design of fast sailing ships, clippers, and referred to a combination of an iron frame and a covering wood board. Currently, this is a very broad class of materials with polymer, metallic, intermetallic or ceramic matrices. The main feature of composites containing fibres is their non-brittle behaviour, even in cases where their main ingredients have a low impact strength. In contrast to metallic alloys, whose crack resistance is determined by the plastic flow, the crack resistance of composites is determined by the formation of multiple microcracks in the matrix, fibre, and at the interface. This allows the use of high modulus elements with potentially high strength (boron, carbon in various forms) and compounds with covalent and ionic bonds as the main components of structural materials. A typical example of structural composites is provided by carbon fibre reinforced plastics.

Author

  • Sergey T. Mileiko

Sources

  1. "Bedanokov A.J. et al. Polymer nanocomposites: The current state of the issue.(in Russian)— http://rusnanotech08.rusnanoforum.ru/sadm_files/disk/Docs/2/43/43%20(26).pdf (reference date: 12.12.2011).
  2. A. Kelly, An introduction to composite materials, in Concise Encyclopedia of Composite Materials / Ed. by A. Kelly. Elsevier Science, 1994. 378 p."