The introduction of carbon-fibre reinforced plastics in load bearing automotive structures provides a great potential to reduce vehicle weight and fuel consumption. To enable the manufacture and assembly of composite structural parts, reliable and cost-effective joining technologies must be developed. This thesis addresses several aspects of joining and load introduction in carbon-fibre reinfor...

In the realm of aerospace design and performance, there are few boundaries in the never-ending drive for increased performance. This thirst for ever-increased performance of aerospace equipment has driven the aerospace and defense industries into developing exotic, extremely highperformance composites that are pushing the envelope in terms of strength-to-weight ratios, durability, and several o...

A damage detection technique, which does not rely on any past baseline signals, is proposed to assess damage in composite plates by using an enhanced time reversal method. A time reversal concept of modern acoustics has been adapted to guided-wave propagation to improve the delectability of local defects in composite structures. In particular, wavelet-based signal processing techniques have bee...

In the present paper, the damage of fiber-reinforced composite laminates is considered with the aim to examine the change of their mechanical properties. The crucial issue for theoretical analysis is to construct constitutive relations, which take into account the development of damage, along with stress and strain. The paper is mainly focused on this problem. In order to derive an adequate des...

The effects of through-thickness reinforcement of carbon/epoxy laminates with thin pins on the in-plane tensile properties, tensile fatigue life and failure mechanisms are investigated. Tensile studies in the 0 fibre direction are performed on unidirectional and quasiisotropic laminates reinforced with different volume contents and sizes of fibrous composite z-pins. Microstructural analysis rev...

This paper discusses the effect of misalignments in ply orientation, uniform variations in ply thickness, and through-thickness thermal gradients on the post-cure shape errors for symmetric cross-ply laminates constructed from ultra-thin composite materials. Photogrammetry-based surface measurements are performed for laminates cured at elevated temperatures. Significant out-of-plane shape error...

Delaminations in composite laminates resulting from impact events may be accompanied by minimal indication of damage at the surface. As such, inspection techniques are required to ensure defects are within allowable limits. Conventional ultrasonic scanning techniques have been shown to effectively characterize the size and depth of delaminations but require physical contact with the structure. ...

Carbon fiber composites are of significant interest for use in deployable space structures. Elastically folded thin laminates can be utilized as hinge mechanisms in structural systems such as solar arrays, reflectors, and instrument booms, allowing for compact packaging during launch to orbit. While the initiative to utilize composite laminates in deployable structures has increased it also has...

This cover designed by Muhammad Irfan and colleagues shows how High Performance Polyethylene (HPPE) fibers are relatively tougher than carbon can be used to improve impact tolerance of epoxy composite laminates. Composite laminates containing suffer from delamination upon impact. An interleave a tough material like HPPE inserted between these fiber plies reduce the damage due do not undergo bri...