MATERIALS · COMPOSITES
Composite materials
Combine two or more distinct constituents so the resulting system delivers a property balance difficult to obtain from a single material.
Common architectures
Fibre-reinforced polymers
Glass, carbon or aramid fibres in polymer matrices.
Metal-matrix composites
Metal matrices reinforced to improve stiffness, wear or temperature capability.
Ceramic-matrix composites
Designed to improve damage tolerance while retaining high-temperature performance.
Sandwich structures
Strong skins separated by a lightweight core for high bending stiffness at low mass.
Load paths
Orientation and stacking sequence control anisotropic response.
Interface
Performance depends on load transfer between reinforcement and matrix.
Damage
Delamination, matrix cracking and fibre failure require suitable inspection methods.
