Composite materials components

Safe Handling of Advanced Composite Materials Components, Health Association, Arlington, VA, April 1989. 

Composites. Various composite materials have evolved over the years as a significant class of high performance textile products. The prototype composite is carbon fiber with an epoxy resin matrix for stmctural akcraft components and other aerospace and military appHcations. Carbon fiber composites ate also used in various leisure and spotting items such as golf clubs, tennis rackets, and lightweight bicycle frames. However, other types of appHcations and composites ate also entering the marketplace. For example, short ceUulose fiber/mbbet composites ate used for hoses, belting, and pneumatic tire components. 

A composite material (1) is a material consisting of two or more physically and/or chemically distinct, suitably arranged or distributed phases, generally having characteristics different from those of any components in isolation. Usually one component acts as a matrix in which the reinforcing phase is distributed. When the continuous phase or matrix is a metal, the composite is a metal-matrix composite (MMC). The reinforcement can be in the form of particles, whiskers, short fibers, or continuous fibers (see Composite materials). 

The soHds used as catalysts are typicady robust porous materials with high internal surface areas, typicady, hundreds of square meters per gram. Reaction occurs on the internal catalyst surface. The typical soHd catalyst used ia iadustry is a composite material with aumerous components and a complex stmcture. 

The modem interest in composite materials can be traced to the development of BakeHte, or phenoHc resin, in 1906. BakeHte was a hard, brittle material that had few if any mechanical appHcations on its own. However, the addition of a filler— the eadiest appHcations used short cellulose fibers (2)—yielded BakeHte mol ding compounds that were strong and tough and found eady appHcations in mass-produced automobile components. The wood dour additive improved BakeHte s processibiHty and physical, chemical, and electrical properties, as weU as reducing its cost (3,4). 

Other Matrix Materials. Advanced materials, eg, stmctural components, in aerospace vehicles also employ ceramics and metals as composite matrices (see Composite materials, ceramic-matrix Metal-matrix composites). 

M. Grayson (editor), Eneyelopedia of Composite Materials and Components, Wiley, 1983. 

The volume of substance in a composite material that exists in a nonequilibrium state due to its proximity to an interface has been termed an interphase [1]. The interphase is a zone of distinct composition and properties formed by chemical or physical processes such as interdiffusion of mutually soluble components or chemical interaction between reactive species. 

A method for the estimation of composite material performance from the characteristics of fillers and the matrices and from the configuration of filler is generally called the law of mixture. In the most basic form of the law of mixture, the characteristics of a composite material are represented as a function of characteristics of constituent components and their volume fractions, as shown in Fig. 3. For a composite material (characteris-ticsiA f) that consists of component A (characteristics Xa, volume fraction ) and component B (characteristics Xf, volume fraction b), the basic formulae of the law of mixture are as follows ... 

The choice of manufacturing technology for the fabrication of fiber-reinforced plastics or composite materials is intimately related to the performance, economics, and application of the materials. It also depends upon a number of factors, such as component numbers required, item complexity, number of molded surfaces, and type of reinforcement. 

Solution of these problems is possible without a profound investigation into each and every property of the composite material, estimation of the contribution of each of the PCM components to the product quality, development of an algorithm for purpose-oriented control of product quality by properly adjusting... 

Recently, Mark and co-workers also reported on organophilic silica formed by the combination of the sol-gel procedure and water-in-oil micro-emulsion method, in which methacryloyloxypropyltrimethoxysilane was used as one component of silica matrix [8]. The size of the silica particle was controlled by the content of water and emulsifier used. The surface of the particles was effectively covered with methacryloyl. organic groups. This organophilic silica is expected to be used as a novel component of composite materials. 

Composite materials and copolymers combine the advantages of more than one component material. Copolymers contain more than one type of monomer. 

Iridium Coating for Spacecraft Rocket Nozzles. The coating of rocket nozzles with iridium is a good example of the ability of CVD to provide a complete composite material, in this case a structural refractory shell substrate coated with a corrosion- and oxidation-resistant component. The device is a thruster rocket nozzle for a satellite. The rocket uses a liquid propellant which is a mixture of nitrogen tetroxide and monomethyl hydrazine. 

Bone is a porous tissue composite material containing a fluid phase, a calcified bone mineral, hydroxyapatite (HA), and organic components (mainly, collagen type). The variety of cellular and noncellular components consist of approximately 69% organic and 22% inorganic material and 9% water. The principal constiments of bone tissue are calcium (Ca ), phosphate (PO ), and hydroxyl (OH ) ions and calcium carbonate. There are smaller quantities of sodium, magnesium, and fluoride. The major compound, HA, has the formula Caio(P04)g(OH)2 in its unit cell. The porosity of bone includes membrane-lined capillary blood vessels, which function to transport nutrients and ions in bone, canaliculi, and the lacunae occupied in vivo by bone cells (osteoblasts), and the micropores present in the matrix. 

Nanostructured materials are nothing new. Chrysotile fibers are an example (Fig. 16.22), as are bones, teeth and shells. The latter are composite materials made up of proteins and embedded hard, nanocrystalline, inorganic substances like apatite. Just as with the imitated artificial composite materials, the mechanical strength is accomplished by the combination of the components. 

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