High performance fibre composites

High performance fibre composites

Composttes Science and Technology 31 (I 988) 159-160 Book Reviews High Performance Fibre Composites. By J. G. Morley, Academic Press, London, 1987. ...

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Composttes Science and Technology 31 (I 988) 159-160

Book Reviews

High Performance Fibre Composites. By J. G. Morley, Academic Press, London, 1987. Price: £30.00/$54.00, 238 + xii pp. The author's objective is to provide engineers, designers and materials scientists with some insight into the nature and potential of highperformance fibre composite materials. He is indeed well qualified to fulfil this objective, having been among the earliest of researchers into composites (pace those ubiquitous biblical Egyptians and their straw-reinforced bricks!) first at Rolls Royce in the 1960s and subsequently in the Wolfson Interracial Technology Institute at Nottingham University. The book covers many aspects of fibre composites technology, although the depth of coverage is a little uneven. Most attention is paid to the characteristics and production of the major reinforcing filaments, and the elastic and mechanical properties of composites including an extensive discussion of the growth of cracks. The author is able in these areas to call substantially on his own work and experience The manufacture of composites, and toughness and fatigue are rather selectively treated. In a book of this kind the latter two topics perhaps call for somewhat better coverage, and composites environmental effects (as distinct from aspects relating to glass fibres), which are of no small importance to the designers, are barely mentioned. The book is likely to be of more direct value to students than to practising designers--the technical content puts it at about the final year of the undergraduate/postgraduate level. It is attractively styled and produced but highly priced, at least by comparison with a number of its market competitors.

Bryan Harris 159 Composites Science and Technology (31) (1988)--© 1988 Elsevier Applied Soence Pu blmshers Ltd, England. Printed in Great Britain