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MECH_ENG 414-1: Mechanics of Composite Materials I (CEE 414-1)

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Prerequisites

The course will be self-contained but will rely on descriptions of the mechanics of deformable solids (MECH_ENG 327, MECH_ENG 362, or equivalent). The numerical computing environment MATLAB will be used for matrix manipulation throughout the course.

Description

Composite materials are materials comprising two or more material phases with different physical properties. Because they usually exhibit remarkable physical properties, in general superior to the properties of their individual components, they appear pervasively in engineering applications (e.g., reinforced concrete in construction, fiber-reinforced materials for aircraft structures, reinforced rubber in car tires, …). Despite being comprised multiple material phases with different physical properties, these materials may be considered for practical purposes as homogeneous materials with physical material-like effective properties.

The course will focus primarily on the elastic properties of a wide range of composites (laminated materials, particulate/fiber-reinforced composites, multidirectional laminates) and will cover a number of engineering methods for the computation of the effective properties of these materials based on the properties and spatial arrangement (volume fraction, shape, orientation, …) of their underlying constituents.

ME414-1 Syllabus