Composite Materials: Characterization, Fabrication and Application-Research Challenges and Directions

Composite Materials have come to existence as long as the history of human being is known. Woods are natural composites surrounding mankind from the very first day. Animal bone as primitive natural composite was used for fishing, hunting and agricultural activities by human. Traditional bone knife of unknown age of 10000 BC or earlier has been kept in The National History Museum. Mummification may be one of the very first humancomposite made which is documented in the history of ancient Egypt. Mummies were wrapped with strips of white linen with a thin layer of oil that protected the body from being damaged. The oldest known mummy found is dated 3000 BC. The world’s largest composite structure manifesting the civilization in human history belonged to the city of Arg-e-Bam with area of approximately 180,000 square meters. The city of Arg-e-bam was made of bricks consist of straw and mud with a history as old as 2000 BC. The last few decades of the second millennium faced human with more of challenges to develop advanced engineering materials. Organic-Matrix Composites (OMC) originated during World War II (1939–1945) in an effort by Aerospace Industry to produce materials with better resistance against corrosion and fatigue damage. When advanced composites technology was promoted in the early 1960s, the emphasis was an increased performance by means of reducing structural weight; very little attention was given to low-cost manufacturing. The demand for high performance composites was further aggrandized by the high cost of fuel which resulted from the energy crisis during the 1970s. Over 35 years, OMC have won an increasing mass fraction of aircrafts and spacecraft structures. The most widely used fibers in OMCs are fiber tows consist of thousands fine filaments arranged in a single bundle. Glass-Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites (GRPs) have found extensive applications including fiber-glass boats, pressure vessels, and airplane panels. Glass fibers are the earliest known fibers in advanced composites compatible with Polyester and Epoxy matrices. Boron-FiberReinforced Composites were used as structural components. Boron fibers were first developed and marketed in 1960s in the form of monofilaments. Boron-epoxy hybrids Appl Compos Mater (2010) 17:63–67 DOI 10.1007/s10443-009-9107-5