Discontinuous-Fibre Reinforced Composites

This book provides a simple and unified approach to the mechanics of discontinuous-fibre reinforced composites, and introduces readers as generally as possible to the key concepts regarding the mechanics of elastic stress transfer, intermediate modes of stress transfer, plastic stress transfer, fibre pull-out, fibre fragmentation and matrix rupture. These concepts are subsequently applied to progressive stages of the loading process, through to the composite fractures. The book offers a valuable guide for advanced undergraduate and graduate students attending lecture courses on fibre composites. It is also intended for beginning researchers who wish to develop deeper insights into how discontinuous fibre provides reinforcement to composites, and for engineers, particularly those who wish to apply the concepts presented here to design and develop discontinuous-fibre reinforced composites. Mechanisms of stress transfer are crucial for understanding: how the matrix and the fibre respond elastically to the external load (shear-lag analysis); how the interface regulates stress transfer; how intermediate modes of failure, e.g. matrix cracking, interfacial bond failure, fibre rupture, could occur; how the matrix shear-slides over fibres (shear-sliding analysis); how fibre pull-out occurs; and how fibre fragmentation occurs. The reader, having grasped the general theory, should then be able to apply it to solving problems concerning the engineering of fibre composite materials. This makes Fundamentals of Stress Transfer in Short-fibre Reinforcing Composites a useful guide for students, researchers and engineers interested in fibre composites.