EEA 223

COMPOSITE MATERIALS

Engr. Lina D. dela Cruz

Chemical Engineering Department
Technological Institute of the
Philippines
What is a composite material

 A composite material is basically a

combination of two or more materials,
each of which retains it own distinctive
properties.
 Generally the term composite is applied
to materials that are created by
mechanically bonding two or more
different materials together.
What is a composite material

 The resulting material has

characteristics that are not
characteristic of the components in
isolation.
What is a composite
material?
 It is a material system composed
of a suitably arranged mixture or
combination of two or more
constituents with an interface
separating them that differ in form
and chemical composition and are
essentially insoluble in each other.
 The engineering importance of a
composite is that two or more
distinctly different materials
combine to form a composite
material that possesses properties
that are superior or important in
some other manner to the
properties of the individual
components.
 Background
 The concept of composite materials is
ancient. An example is adding straw to
mud for building stronger mud walls.
 Some other examples of basic
composites include concrete (cement
mixed with sand and aggregate),
reinforced concrete (steel rebar in
concrete), and fiberglass (glass strands
in a resin matrix).
 Background

 In about the mid 1960’s, a new

group of composite materials,
called advanced engineered
composite materials (aka
advanced composites), began to
emerge.
 Advanced composites utilize a
combination of resins and fibers,
customarily carbon/graphite, or
fiberglass with an epoxy resin.
 The fibers provide the high
stiffness, while the surrounding
polymer resin matrix holds the
structure together.
 The fundamental design concept of
composites is that the bulk phase
accepts the load over a large
surface area, and transfers it to
the reinforcement material, which
can carry a greater load.
 Components of
Composite Materials
Matrix phase: bulk materials such
as:
 Metals
 Ceramics
 Polymers
Reinforcement: fibers and particulates such
as: Glass
 Carbon
 Kevlar
 Silicon Carbide
 Boron
 Ceramic
 Ceramic
 Metallic
 Aggregate
 Classification of
Composite Materials
 Since the reinforcement material is
of primary importance in the
strengthening mechanism of a
composite, it is convenient to
classify composites according to
the characteristics of the
reinforcement.
Three categories
commonly used to classify
composite materials
 Fiber Reinforced – In this group of
composites, the fiber is the primary
load-bearing component.
 Dispersion Strengthened – In this
group, the matrix is the major load-
bearing component
 Particle Reinforced – In this group, the
load is shared by the matrix and the
particles.
Fiber Reinforced
Composites
 Fiberglass is likely the best know fiber
reinforced composite but carbon-epoxy
and other advanced composites all fall
into this category.

 The fibers can be in the form of long

continuous fibers, or they can be
discontinuous fibers, particles, whiskers
and even weaved sheets.
Fiber Reinforced
Composites
 Fibers are usually combined with
ductile matrix materials, such as
metals and polymers, to make
them stiffer, while fibers are added
to brittle matrix materials like
ceramics to increase toughness.
Fiber Reinforced
Composites
Fiber materials include:
1. Glass – glass is the most
common and inexpensive fiber and
is usually use for the
reinforcement of polymer matrices.
Glass has a high tensile strength
and fairly low density (2.5 g/cc).
 Fiber materials

2. Carbon-graphite - in advance
composites, carbon fibers are the
material of choice. Carbon is a
very light element, with a density
of about 2.3 g/cc and its stiffness
is considerable higher than glass.
Example: Carbon-Carbon
--process: fiber/pitch, then
C fibers:
burn out at up to 2500C. very stiff
--uses: disk brakes, gas very strong
C matrix:
turbine exhaust flaps, less stiff
nose view onto plane less strong
fibers lie
in plane
 Fiber materials

 Carbon fibers can have up to 3

times the stiffness of steel and up
to 15 times the strength of
construction steel.
 Fiber materials
3. Polymer – the strong covalent bonds
of polymers can lead to impressive
properties when aligned along the fiber
axis of high molecular weight chains
Kevlar is an aromatic polyamide
composed of oriented aromatic chains,
which makes them rigid rod-like
polymers. Its stiffness can be as high as
125 GPa and although very strong in
tension, it has very poor compression
properties.
Kevlar fibers are mostly used to increase
toughness in otherwise brittle matrices.
Snowboards
4. Ceramic – fibers made from materials
such as Alumina and SiC (Silicon
carbide) are advantageous in very high
temperature applications, and also
where environmental attack is an issue.
Ceramics have poor properties in
tension and shear, so most applications
as reinforcement are in the particulate
form.
5. Metallic - some metallic fibers
have high strengths but since
there density is very high they are
of little use in weight critical
applications. Drawing very thin
metallic fibers (less than 100
micron) is also very expensive.
 Dispersion Strengthen
Composites
 In dispersion strengthened composites,
small particles on the order of 10-5 mm
to 2.5 x 10-4 mm in diameter are
added to the matrix material. These
particles act to help the matrix resist
deformation.
 This makes the material harder and
stronger.
Particle Reinforced
Composites
 The particles in these composite are larger
than in dispersion strengthened composites.
 In this case, the particles carry a major
portion of the load.
 The particles are used to increase the modulus
and decrease the ductility of the matrix. An
example of particle reinforced composites is an
automobile tire which has carbon black
particles in a matrix of polyisobutylene
elastomeric polymer.
 With polymeric matrices, the
particles are simply added to the
polymer melt in an extruder or
injection molder during polymer
processing. Similarly, reinforcing
particles are added to a molten
metal before it is cast.
Examples of items produced with
composite materials
Composite materials using
polymeric resin matrix
High velocity aircraft
Space boom
Magnetic tapes
Circuit board