Composite material
**Composite Material History and Examples:**
– Composite materials have been used since ancient times, such as straw and mud composites for building construction.
– Wattle and daub, dating back over 6000 years, is among the oldest known composite materials.
– Concrete, the most widely used synthetic material, sees an annual production of about 7.5 billion cubic meters.
– Natural composites from woody plants like trees, palms, and bamboo have been used in construction.
– Plywood, invented around 3400 BC, offers enhanced properties compared to natural wood.
– Examples of composite materials include concrete, plywood, composite sandwich structure panels used in NASA testing, reinforced concrete, and fiber-reinforced polymers like carbon-fiber-reinforced polymers and glass-reinforced plastic.
**Types and Applications of Composite Materials:**
– Various types of composite materials include concrete, fiber-reinforced polymers, shape-memory polymer composites, high strain composites, metal matrix composites (MMC), and ceramic matrix composites (CMC).
– Applications of composite materials span across buildings, bridges, boat hulls, racing car bodies, and more.
– Composites are increasingly used in automotive applications, spacecraft, aircraft, and even robotic materials that integrate sensing, actuation, computation, and communication.
– Advanced composites are inspired by natural sources and animals to reduce carbon footprint and enhance performance.
**Future Trends and Advancements in Composite Materials:**
– Research is focusing on developing composites with enhanced properties like strength, durability, and lightweight.
– Exploration of new applications for composites across various industries is ongoing.
– Manufacturing processes for composite materials are advancing to improve efficiency and quality.
– Sustainability and environmental impact considerations are driving the production of composite materials.
– Potential future trends include composites with integrated sensing, actuation, computation, and communication capabilities.
**Properties, Advantages, and Products of Composites:**
– Composite materials offer advantages like being lightweight yet strong, having high bending stiffness, low density, improved impact resistance, and shape memory behavior.
– Products utilizing composite materials range from aerospace components, boat and scull hulls, bicycle frames, racing car bodies, to military vehicles and swimming pool panels.
– Prominent examples of products using composite materials include structures of Boeing 787 and Airbus A350, hockey sticks, launch vehicles, spacecraft components, and orthopedic surgery applications.
**Manufacturing Processes and Techniques in Composite Fabrication:**
– Fabrication methods for composites involve wetting, mixing, and binding reinforcement with the matrix.
– Techniques like advanced fiber placement, filament winding, tailored fiber placement, and various molding methods are utilized.
– Core materials like foams, balsa wood, and honeycombs are used in composite structures.
– Various fabrication methods include casting, centrifugal casting, filament winding, press molding, transfer molding, pultrusion molding, and more.
– The manufacturing process for composite materials involves the merging, compacting, and curing of reinforcing and matrix materials in a mold.
It has been suggested that this article should be split into articles titled Autoclave moulding, Resin transfer moulding, Pressure bag moulding and Light resin transfer moulding. (discuss) (November 2020) |
A composite material (also called a composition material or shortened to composite, which is the common name) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or physical properties and are merged to create a material with properties unlike the individual elements. Within the finished structure, the individual elements remain separate and distinct, distinguishing composites from mixtures and solid solutions. Composite materials with more than one distinct layer are called composite laminates.
Typical engineered composite materials include:
- Reinforced concrete and masonry
- Composite wood such as plywood
- Reinforced plastics, such as fibre-reinforced polymer or fiberglass
- Ceramic matrix composites (composite ceramic and metal matrices)
- Metal matrix composites
- and other advanced composite materials
There are various reasons where new material can be favoured. Typical examples include materials which are less expensive, lighter, stronger or more durable when compared with common materials, as well as composite materials inspired from animals and natural sources with low carbon footprint.
More recently researchers have also begun to actively include sensing, actuation, computation, and communication into composites, which are known as robotic materials.
Composite materials are generally used for buildings, bridges, and structures such as boat hulls, swimming pool panels, racing car bodies, shower stalls, bathtubs, storage tanks, imitation granite, and cultured marble sinks and countertops. They are also being increasingly used in general automotive applications.
The most advanced examples perform routinely on spacecraft and aircraft in demanding environments.