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Proceedings of the American society for composites second technical conference
Composites Science and Technology 33 (1988) 73-74
Book Review
Proceedings of the American Society for Composites Second Technical Conference. University of Delaware, 23-25 September, 1987. Technomic Pub. Co., Inc. Lancaster, PA, USA. The Conference was held over three days and consisted of 21 sessions at which 63 papers were presented. Most of these papers originated in the USA with only 8 by overseas authors. Unfortunately, 8 of the manuscripts were not available to the publishers and these are listed by title and author only; all 3 of the UK contributions fall into this category. The proceedings, nevertheless, form a substantial volume of 55 papers and 583 pages, handsomely bound between stiff covers. It has been produced from camera ready copy but the production quality is excellent with very good reproduction of all illustrations. A very wide range of composites' issues is addressed. No less than 5 sessions were devoted to aspects of processing and process modelling, 4 to characterisation and non-destructive evaluation, 4 to damage and fracture, 3 to interface and interlaminar failure studies, 2 to structures and stress analysis and one each to metal and ceramic matrix materials. This mix gives a good indication of current preoccupations in the field of composites. There is less emphasis on micromechanics and stress analysis and much more on processing. This reflects the fact that composites have progressed from the laboratory to the production line. There are perhaps fewer papers on M M C and CMC than might be expected but this is probably a consequence of the infamous Munitions Act. The first two papers on interlaminar fracture by Whitney and Short, and 73 Composites Science and Technology (33) (1988)--© 1988 Elsevier Science Publishers Ltd, England. Printed in Great Britain
74
Book review
Becht and Gillespie respectively are concerned with testing and both propose new test piece configurations. These papers are eminently practical. There follow three papers devoted to a theoretical analysis of interlaminar fracture by Sun and Manoharan, Nairn and Palley. These all address the problem of obtaining meaningful fracture mechanics parameters for anisotropic composites. No doubt each makes an incremental contribution to knowledge in this area but none are backed up with adequate experimentation to instil confidence in the designer. The papers in session 5A on interface studies are concerned with the intimate detail of failure at the micromechanics level. Some useful data is provided by Banerjee et al. and by Kalantar and Drzal, but the paper of Raghava on the control of the interphase, whilst of great potential interest, is poorly presented. Four papers on impact complete this group and provide some useful detail on specific materials and structures. No less than 15 papers are concerned with aspects of processing. There is much attention to the modelling of the curing process in thermosets, heat flow, flow of resin through mats and cloth and monitoring of cure by acoustic emission and dielectric measurements are discussed. Several papers are concerned with processing of thermoplastics and the diaphragm moulding process comes in for special attention. (Papers by O'Bradaigh and Mallon, and by Smiley and Pipes.) There are several papers on various aspects of characterisation; one by Prosser and Green is particularly interesting in that they have used ultrasound to measure changes in elastic constant of C F R P with applied stress and temperature. Their method is sufficiently sensitive to measure small non-linearities which are generally beyond the resolution of conventional mechanical techniques. Further papers in this section are devoted to the performance of random mat reinforced thermoplastic and multi-dimensional carbon/PEEK materials. Overall the standard of the papers is high and they reflect the current mainstream of composites research in the USA. Most researchers and many designers will find something of more than passing interest in this volume, which appeared commendably quickly after the conference and may still be regarded as current. May I close, however, with a comment on the vexed question of units. The idea of a consistent system of units does not seem to catch on across the Atlantic. In one paper, which otherwise well written, the following units appear: °C, mm, inches, mm/min, in/min, rad/s, KJ/m (N.B. K rather than k) and MPa. Needless to say there is not a conversion factor in sight. M. G. Bader
Book Review
Proceedings of the American Society for Composites Second Technical Conference. University of Delaware, 23-25 September, 1987. Technomic Pub. Co., Inc. Lancaster, PA, USA. The Conference was held over three days and consisted of 21 sessions at which 63 papers were presented. Most of these papers originated in the USA with only 8 by overseas authors. Unfortunately, 8 of the manuscripts were not available to the publishers and these are listed by title and author only; all 3 of the UK contributions fall into this category. The proceedings, nevertheless, form a substantial volume of 55 papers and 583 pages, handsomely bound between stiff covers. It has been produced from camera ready copy but the production quality is excellent with very good reproduction of all illustrations. A very wide range of composites' issues is addressed. No less than 5 sessions were devoted to aspects of processing and process modelling, 4 to characterisation and non-destructive evaluation, 4 to damage and fracture, 3 to interface and interlaminar failure studies, 2 to structures and stress analysis and one each to metal and ceramic matrix materials. This mix gives a good indication of current preoccupations in the field of composites. There is less emphasis on micromechanics and stress analysis and much more on processing. This reflects the fact that composites have progressed from the laboratory to the production line. There are perhaps fewer papers on M M C and CMC than might be expected but this is probably a consequence of the infamous Munitions Act. The first two papers on interlaminar fracture by Whitney and Short, and 73 Composites Science and Technology (33) (1988)--© 1988 Elsevier Science Publishers Ltd, England. Printed in Great Britain
74
Book review
Becht and Gillespie respectively are concerned with testing and both propose new test piece configurations. These papers are eminently practical. There follow three papers devoted to a theoretical analysis of interlaminar fracture by Sun and Manoharan, Nairn and Palley. These all address the problem of obtaining meaningful fracture mechanics parameters for anisotropic composites. No doubt each makes an incremental contribution to knowledge in this area but none are backed up with adequate experimentation to instil confidence in the designer. The papers in session 5A on interface studies are concerned with the intimate detail of failure at the micromechanics level. Some useful data is provided by Banerjee et al. and by Kalantar and Drzal, but the paper of Raghava on the control of the interphase, whilst of great potential interest, is poorly presented. Four papers on impact complete this group and provide some useful detail on specific materials and structures. No less than 15 papers are concerned with aspects of processing. There is much attention to the modelling of the curing process in thermosets, heat flow, flow of resin through mats and cloth and monitoring of cure by acoustic emission and dielectric measurements are discussed. Several papers are concerned with processing of thermoplastics and the diaphragm moulding process comes in for special attention. (Papers by O'Bradaigh and Mallon, and by Smiley and Pipes.) There are several papers on various aspects of characterisation; one by Prosser and Green is particularly interesting in that they have used ultrasound to measure changes in elastic constant of C F R P with applied stress and temperature. Their method is sufficiently sensitive to measure small non-linearities which are generally beyond the resolution of conventional mechanical techniques. Further papers in this section are devoted to the performance of random mat reinforced thermoplastic and multi-dimensional carbon/PEEK materials. Overall the standard of the papers is high and they reflect the current mainstream of composites research in the USA. Most researchers and many designers will find something of more than passing interest in this volume, which appeared commendably quickly after the conference and may still be regarded as current. May I close, however, with a comment on the vexed question of units. The idea of a consistent system of units does not seem to catch on across the Atlantic. In one paper, which otherwise well written, the following units appear: °C, mm, inches, mm/min, in/min, rad/s, KJ/m (N.B. K rather than k) and MPa. Needless to say there is not a conversion factor in sight. M. G. Bader