K.L. Reifsnider – författare

This book provides the first comprehensive review of its kind on the long-term behaviour of composite materials and structures subjected to time variable mechanical, thermal, and chemical influences, a subject of critical importance to the design, development, and certification of high performance engineering structures. Specific topics examined include damage, damage characterization, and damage mechanics; fatigue testing and evaluation; fatigue behaviour of short and long fibre reinforced polymer and metal matrix materials; viscoelastic and moisture effects; delamination; statistical considerations; the modeling of cumulative damage development; and life prediction. The volume provides an extensive presentation of data, discussions, and comparisons on the behaviour of the major types of material systems in current use, as well as extensive analysis and modeling (including the first presentation of work not found elsewhere). The book will be of special interest to engineers concerned with reliability, maintainability, safety, certification, and damage tolerance; to materials developers concerned with making materials for long-term service, especially under severe loads and environments, and to lecturers, students, and researchers involved in material system design, performance, solid mechanics, fatigue, durability, and composite materials. The scope of the work extends from entry level material to the frontiers of the subject.

The papers from these proceedings address experimental and analytical methods for the characterization and analysis of modern composite and adhesive systems. They have been produced to provide understanding that can be used to design safe, reliable engineering components.

The papers from these proceedings address experimental and analytical methods for the characterization and analysis of modern composite and adhesive systems. They have been produced to provide understanding that can be used to design safe, reliable engineering components.

The application of composite materials to engineering components has spurred a ma­ jor effort to analyze such materials and the structures made from them. Most researchers workin~ in mechanics of composite structures understand that composite materials pro­ vide umque advantages but also present complex and challenging problems to researchers. The complex inelastic behavior and variety of failure modes of composite structures are a result of the strength and stiffness properties of constituents and their complex interac­ tions. Macromechanical constitutive models based on gross composite properties cannot realistically represent local interactions, and thus have serious limitations. The composite materials that are of most interest to engineering applications are often "brittle" in their behavior, in the sense that the strength and life of the material systems is controlled or greatly influenced by events or processes which involve volumes of material whose dimen­ sions are small compared to the global dimensions of the element. This is also true in ductile systems where local nonlinearity may contribute to local behavior which controls global response.

The application of composite materials to engineering components has spurred a ma­ jor effort to analyze such materials and the structures made from them. Most researchers workin~ in mechanics of composite structures understand that composite materials pro­ vide umque advantages but also present complex and challenging problems to researchers. The complex inelastic behavior and variety of failure modes of composite structures are a result of the strength and stiffness properties of constituents and their complex interac­ tions. Macromechanical constitutive models based on gross composite properties cannot realistically represent local interactions, and thus have serious limitations. The composite materials that are of most interest to engineering applications are often "brittle" in their behavior, in the sense that the strength and life of the material systems is controlled or greatly influenced by events or processes which involve volumes of material whose dimen­ sions are small compared to the global dimensions of the element. This is also true in ductile systems where local nonlinearity may contribute to local behavior which controls global response.