5.

0 COMPOSITE MATERIALS: STRUCTURE, GENERAL PROPERTIES,

AND APPLICATIONS
A composite material is a combination of two or more chemically distinct and insoluble
phases with a recognizable interface, in such a manner that its properties and structural
performance are superior to those of the constituents acting independently. These combi-
nations are known as metal-matrix and ceramic-matrix composites. As shown in Table 7.1,
fiber reinforcements significantly improve the strength, stiffness, and creep resistance of
plastics-particularly their strength-to-weight and stiffness-to-Weight ratios. Composite ma-
terials have found increasingly wider applications in aircraft (Fig. 9.1), space vehicles, sat-
ellites, offshore structures, piping, electronics, automobiles, boats, and sporting goods.

The oldest example of composites, dating back to 4000 B.C., is the addition of straw to clay
to make bricks for buildings. In this combination, the straws are the reinforcing fibers and
the clay is the matrix. Another example of a composite material is reinforced concrete, which
was developed in the 18005. By itself, concrete is brittle and has little or no useful tensile
strength; reinforcing steel rods (rebar) impart the necessary tensile strength to the compo-
site.

Composites, in the most general sense, can be thought of as a wide variety of materials,
such as cermets, two-phase alloys, natural materials such as Wood and bone, and general
reinforced or combined materials such as steel-wire reinforced automobile tires. These ma-
terials should be recognized as composite materials, even if they are not emphasized in this
chapter.

This chapter describes the structure of composite materials that have a continuous matrix
and fibers as the reinforcement. The chapter also discusses the types and characteristics
of reinforcing fibers used and typical major applications of these materials. The processing
and the shaping of composite materials are described in Chapter 19.

Department of Industrial & Manufacturing

IM-208 Materials Engineering
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Figure 5-1 Application of advanced composite materials in Boeing 757-200 commercial
aircraft. Source: Boeing Commercial Airplane Company.

5.1 THE STRUCTURE OF REINFORCED PLASTICS

Reinforced plastics, also known as polymer-matrix composites (PMC) and fiber-rein-

forced plastics (FRP), consist of fibers (the discontinuous, or dispersed, phase) in a pol-
ymer matrix (the continuous phase), as shown in Figure 5-2. These fibers are strong and
stiff (Table 1), and they have high specific strength (strength-to-weight ratio) and specific
stiffness (stiffness-to-weight ratio), as shown in Figure 5-3. In addition, reinforced-plastic
structures have improved fatigue resistance, greater toughness, and higher creep re-
sistance than those made of unreinforced plastics. Reinforced-plastic structures are rela-
tively easy to design, fabricate, and repair.

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Figure 5-2 Schematic illustration of methods of reinforcing plastics (matrix) with (a) particles,
and (b) short or long fibers or flakes. The four layers of continuous fibers in illustration (c) are
assembled into a laminate structure.

By themselves, the fibers in reinforced plastics have little structural value; they have stiff-
ness in their longitudinal direction, but no transverse stiffness or strength. The plastic matrix
is less strong and less stiff, but it is tougher and often more chemically inert, than the fibers.
Reinforced plastics combine the advantages of each of the two constituents. The percent-
age of fibers (by volume) in reinforced plastics usually ranges between 10 and 60%. Prac-
tically, the percentage of fiber in a matrix is limited by the average distance between adja-
cent fibers or particles. The highest practical fiber content is 65 %; higher percentages gen-
erally result in poorer structural properties.

Table 1

Material Characteristics
Fibers
Glass High strength, low stiffness, high density; lowest cost; E (calcium
aluminoborosilicate) and S (magnesia-aluminosilicate) types
commonly used.
Graphite Available as high-modulus or high-strength; low cost; less dense
than glass.
Boron High strength and stiffness; highest density; highest cost; has
tungsten filament at its center.
Aramids (Kevlar) Highest strength-to-weight ratio of all fibers; high cost.

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 Other Fibers Nylon, silicon carbide, silicon nitride, aluminum oxide, boron car-
bide, boron nitride, tantalum carbide, steel, tungsten, molyb-
denum.
Matrix Materials
Thermosets Epoxy and polyester, with the former most commonly used; oth-
ers are phenolics, fluorocarbons, polyethersulfone, silicon, and
polyimides.
Thermoplastics Polyetheretherketone; tougher than thermosets but lower
resistance to temperature.
Metals Aluminum, aluminum-lithium, magnesium, and titanium; fi-
bers are graphite, aluminum oxide, silicon carbide, and
boron.
Ceramics Silicon carbide, silicon nitride, aluminum oxide, and mul-
lite; fibers are various ceramics.

Figure 5-3 Specific tensile strength (tensile strength-to-density ratio) and specific tensile
modulus (modulus of elasticity-to-density ratio) for various fibers used in reinforced plastics.
Note the wide range of specific strengths and stiffnesses available.

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5.2 REINFORCING FIBERS

Glass, carbon, ceramics, aramids, and boron are the most common reinforcing fibers for
polymer-matrix composites (Table 2).

Table 2

Type Tensile Elastic Density Relative cost

strength modulus ( kg/m3)
(MPa) (GPa)
Boron 3500 380 2600 Highest
Carbon
High 3000 275 1900 Low
strength
High Modu- 2000 415 1900 Low
lus
Glass
E type 3500 73 2480 Lowest
S type 4600 85 2540 Lowest
Kevlar
29 2800 62 1440 High
49 2800 117 1440 High

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5.3 EXAMPLE OF ADVANCED MATERIALS CONSTRUCTION

Figure 5-4 Cross-section of a composite sailboard, an example of advanced materials

construction.

5.4 METAL-MATRIX COMPOSITES

The advantages of a metal matrix over a polymer matrix are higher elastic modulus, tough-
ness, ductility, and higher resistance to elevated temperatures. The limitations are higher
density and a greater difficulty in processing parts. Matrix materials in metal-matrix compo-
sites (MMC) are usually aluminum, aluminum-lithium alloy (lighter than aluminum), magne-
sium, copper, titanium, and superalloys (Fig. 9.10). Fiber materials are graphite, aluminum
oxide, silicon carbide, boron, molybdenum, and tungsten.

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The elastic modulus of nonmetallic fibers ranges between 200 and 400 GPa, with tensile
strengths in the range from 2000 to 3000 MPa.

Typical compositions and applications for metal-matrix composites are given in Table 9.3.