The course covers three key aspects of composite materials: their manufacture, prediction of their structural response and design methodologies for structural applications.
Manufacturing methods to produce various composites, including fibre-reinforced composites will be covered. This includes the knowledge required to be able to choose suitable processing techniques and manufacturing processes, depending on the material type and applications, for fabricating specific composite products.
The largest portion of this course is focused on methods for predicting the mechanical properties and structural response of composites. This covers;
- Micromechanics of composites: Identifying the constituent materials of composites (fibres and polymers) and their roles in relation to strength and stiffness. Computation of effective properties of fibre-reinforced composite materials using the rules of mixtures. Stress-strain transformation to determine stresses and strains in a lamina for a given direction as specified by a coordinate system.
- Macromechanics of composite materials: Covering the mechanical behaviour of laminates using classical lamination theory, enabling the computation of stresses or strains in laminates under mechanical loading.
- Generalised Hooke’s Law: Used to describe stress-strain relations in orthotropic and transversely isotropic materials.
- Failure of composites: A range of failure theories for laminated composites are covered, including simple maximum stress and strain criteria as well as complex multi-axial criteria.
- Sandwich Structure Theory: Enabling the analysis and prediction of stresses, strains, and deformations of sandwich composites. Failure modes of simple sandwich structures are covered as well as design approaches for sandwich composites across a range of different applications.
- Analyse Composites using Finite Element Analysis: Application of suitable finite element modelling procedures for stress and deformation analysis of composites. The course uses ABAQUS/CAE.
Design principles of composite laminates and structures are covered, enabling the identification of appropriate design methods for different composite structures, particularly the use of finite element methods and failure analysis. This includes the selection of appropriate material systems among various alternatives (based on strength and stiffness criteria) for composite structure designs and identification of the sources of material properties for constituent materials. This will culminate in the design of a simple composite component using a variety of tools, analysis, and modelling techniques.