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6.7. Polymeric Composite Materials
D evelopm ent of one or twoC M C (s), e.g. a SiC -based
and an alum ina-based com posites, including that of an
interphase m aterial and a low cost processing technique,
guided by one or tw o potential application(s).
D evelopm ent of sound data baseson C M C s and their
constituents (including that of suitable standard tests
and m odelling).
D evelopm ent of the durabilityof C M C s, including that
of suitable internal and external oxidation protection
(for non-oxide C M C s), lifetim e prediction, residual
m echanical and therm al properties characterization and
m odelling.
6.7.1. Introduction
Principal advantage of com posite m aterials resides in the
possibility of com bining physical properties of the constit-
uents to obtain new structural or functional properties.
C om posite m aterials appeared very early in hum an tech-
nology, the structuralproperties of straw w ere com bined
w ith a clay m atrix to produce the first construction m ateri-
al and, m ore recently, steel reinforcem ent opened the w ay
to the ferroconcrete that is the last century dom inant m a-
terial in civil engineering. As a m atter of fact, the m odern
developm ent of polym eric m aterials and high m odulus
fibres (carbon, aram idic) introduced a new generation of
com posites. The m ost relevant benefit has been the pos-
sibility of energetically convenient m anufacturing asso-
ciated w ith the low w eight features. D ue to the possibility
of designing properties, com posite m aterials have been
w idely used, in the recent past, w hen stiffness/w eight,
strength/w eight, ability to tailor structural perform ances
and therm al expansion, corrosion resistance and fatigue
resistance are required. Polym eric com posites w ere m ain-
ly developed for aerospace applications w here the reduc-
tion of the w eight w as the principal objective, irrespective
of the cost. The scientific efforts in this field w ere there-
fore focused to the com prehension and optim ization of the
structural perform ances of these m aterials. Structural
com posite m aterials have been also used in other fields
such as autom otive, naval transportation and civil engi-
neering but the high cost still lim its their applications. A
continuous task has been m aking com posite com ponents
econom ically attractive. The effort to produce econom ic
attractive com posite com ponents has resulted in several
innovative m anufacturing techniques currently being used
in the com posite industry.
6.7.2. State of the Art
N ow adays, technology is devoted to the developm ent of
new m aterials able to satisfy specific requirem ents in term s
of both structural and functional perform ances. The need
of exploring new m arkets in the field of polym eric com -
posites has recently driven the research in Europe tow ards
the developm ent of new products and technologies. In par-
ticular, activities on therm oplastic based com posites and
on com posites based on natural occurring m aterials (envi-
ronm entally friendly, biodegradable system s) have been of
relevant interest in m any European countries.
Since the beginning of the 90s years, U .S. and Japan have
recognized the need of expanding com posite applications.
In the field of m aterials, Japan put m ore em phasis than
U .S. on therm oplastic and high tem perature resins. M ore-
over, due to the large extent of the textile industry in Ja-
pan, textile preform ing is significantly m ore advanced than
in U .S, and this could lead to the developm ent of cost-effi-
cient autom ated com puter-controlled loom s for com plex
textile shapes. In contrast to the U .S. approach of devel-
oping com putational m odels to better understand m anu-
facturing processes, Japanese m anufacturing science ap-
pears to reside in experienced w orkers w ho develop under-
standing of the process over long period of tim e. H ow ever,
Japanese process and product developm ent m ethods are
based on concurrent engineering m ethodology, w hich is
based on the integration of product and process design.
Biom edical is another im portant field w here com posites
are applied. M aterials, able to sim ulate the com plex struc-
tural properties of the natural tissues, w hich are com pos-
ite in nature, have been developed but there are still few
M. Giordano, S. Iannace and L. Nicolais | Universit Federico II, 80125Napoli, Italy
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217
applications. This is due to the delay in the technology
transfer from different areas (com posite industry and bio-
m edical) and to the lack of cross-disciplinary strategies.
In this field, U .S. m aintain a leadership role but m ajor
centres exist in E U and Japan. Japan recognized the ne-
cessity of establishing a N ational Institute for Advanced
Interdisciplinary R esearchw hich is devoted to research
on subjects com bining elem ents from various fields that
cannot be adequately treated w ithin the bounds of tradi-
tional divisions of science. A m ong other topics, soft and
hard tissue engineering are considered of relevant inter-
ests. Tissue engineering activities are grow ing, as w ell and
strong R & D program m es are present in E U and Japan,
even though U .S. have a leadership role in the field.
6.7.3. Trends
The m ain trends in the structural com posite field are
related to the reduction of the cost w hich cannot only be
related to the im provem ent in the m anufacturing technol-
ogy, but needs an integration betw een design, m aterial,
process, tooling, quality assurance, m anufacturing. M ore-
over, the high-tech industry, such as telecom m unication,
w here specific functional properties are the principal
requirem ents, w ill take advantages by the com posite
approach in the next future. The control of the filler size,
shape and surface chem ical nature has a fundam ental role
in the developm ent of m aterials that can be utilized to de-
velop devices, sensors and actuators based on the tailoring
of functional properties such as optical, chem ical and phys-
ical, m agneto-elastic etc. Finally, a future technological
challenge w ill be the developm ent of a new class of sm art
com posite m aterials w hose elasto-dynam ic response can
be adapted in real tim e in order to significantly enhance
the perform ance of structural and m echanical system s
under a diverse range of operating conditions.
O ver the long period term , U .S. and Japan believe that
advances in the m aterials area w ould prom pt new break-
throughs in the area of com posites. In fact, the current
em phasis is on fourth-generationm aterials, i.e. those
that are designed by controlling the behaviour of atom s
and electrons, and w hich provide carefully tailored
functional gradients.
6.7.4. Expectation and Needs for the Next 10 Years
The com posite m aterials m arket is expected to expand in
areas w here costs are today a strong lim itation. The im -
provem ent of the m ature m anufacturing technologies w ill
benefit from integrated approach w here product and pro-
cess requirem ents are set at design level. The expected re-
duction of m anufacturing costs of the structural com pos-
ites w ill expand applications of such m aterials to large-
scale m arkets such as civil and goods. A m ong the
param ount needs are large-scale sponsored dem onstration
project; large scale and long-duration tests program m es;
developm ent and support of product certification and
specification protocols. In particular, it is dem anding to
expand basic and applied research in the fields of m ateri-
als system s for hom es, m ore durable m aterials to replace
aging pipelines and transm ission system s, enhanced safe-
ty system s for lighter autom obiles m ade from com posites,
as w ell as research into even m ore rapid m anufacturing
processes, im provem ents in m aterial handling and stor-
age, and better, m ore durable and ever m ore benign resins.
Significant breakthroughs are expected in new com posite
m aterials especially in those applications, such as elec-
tronic, optic and biom edical, w here functionality is the
m ost relevant technical need. Relevant developm ent w ill
be expected in the area of nanophase m aterial synthesis
and nanocom posite m anufacturing technology. H ow ever,
further optim ization studies are required to im plem ent
large-scale production.
Particular em phasis should be devoted to the R& D of com -
posite m aterials able to respond to dynam ic variation of
the operative conditions. Sm art m aterials w ill provide the
nervous system s, the brains and the m uscles for the exist-
ing advanced m aterials and structure that, at the m om ent,
are a m ere skeleton com pared w ith the anatom y forecast-
ed in a near future. A pplications are expected in fields of
sensors, actuators, and biom edical.
Advanced Sensors Application Driven
Control System Modelling New Materials
Fig. 6.11. Main trends and expected breakthroughs (yellow) in the
manufacturing of composite materials.
Innovative Technologies
Improve Mature
Technologies
Manufacturing
Low Cost
Environmentally friendly
218
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The quality of hum an life w ould be greatly im proved by
the availability of artificial prostheses (bone, m uscles, car-
tilage, and soft tissues) and organs able to restore, repair
or replace structural and functional perform ances of the
natural tissues. The com posite structure of the natural
system s w ith its intrinsic com plexity needs to be repro-
duced. Tissue Engineering is one of the m ajor focuses of
biotechnological research today, w ith the expectation that
this type of biohybrid technology w ill ultim ately trans-
form the practice of restorative clinics. The approach com -
bines the principles of biology, m aterial science and engi-
neering to culture cells, also heterogeneous groups of
cells, using polym eric biodegradable scaffolds as delivery
vehicles for cell transplantation to obtain com plex three-
dim ensional cellular constructs. C om posite m aterials
should be properly designed to provide anisotropic and/
or active scaffolds able to control the cell grow th in the
reconstruction of com plex natural structures.
The expected developm ent of the aforem entioned fields
needs a serious interdisciplinary approach. As already rec-
ognized by U .S. and Japan, significant advancem ent in
the next 10 years in the field of a) functional and structu-
ral com posites through nanotechnologies, b) sm art m ate-
rials and c) com posite for biom edical applications requires
cross-disciplinary strategies that should be addressed by
com bining various scientific disciplines. The available
huge am ount of hum an and econom ic resources, spread
all over Europe, should be better coordinated by the crea-
tion of new interdisciplinary E uropean research centres
that could face the w orld scientific and technological chal-
lenge in these strategic fields.
6.7.5. Conclusions
R esearch activities, aim ed to expand the applications in
com posite industry, m ust be addressed to im prove m anu-
facturing com posite technology, through a better integra-
tion of product and process design; to develop new
constituent m aterials w ith better perform ances and/or for
the tailoring of structural and functional properties for
special applications and for the developm ent of new pro-
cesses and new m anufacturing technologies.
E xpected breakthroughs are related to the developm ent
of m ulti-com ponent m aterials w ith anisotropic and non-
linear properties, able to im part unique structural and
functional properties. Applications include sm art system s,
able to recognize and to adapt to external stim uli, as w ell
as anisotropic and active com posite system s to be used
as scaffold for tissue engineering and other biom edical
applications.
Advanced Matrices
Nanophases Active Materials Materials
Multifunctional Structures
Smart Materials
Advanced
Textiles
Eco-Sustainable
Materials
Biomimetic
Fig. 6.12. Main trends and expected breakthroughs (yellow) in
composite materials.
Communi t y Research & Devel opment Inf ormat i on Servi ce:
w w w.cordi s.l u
Nat i onal Sci ence Foundat i on (USA): w w w.eng.nsf .gov/ dmmi
D.J . Wi l ki ns, M .Ashi zaw a, J .B. De Vaul t , D.R. Gi l l , V.M . Karbhari ,
J.S.M cDermot t , JTEC Panel Report on Advanced M anuf act uri ng Tech-
nol ogy f or Pol ymer Composi t e St ruct ure i n Japan, (1994),
ht t p:/ / i t ri .l oyol a.edu/ pol ymers/ t oc.ht m
Advanced Technol ogy Programs, NIST, 1999 Funded Proj ect s,
w w w.at p.ni st .gov
WTEC Workshop on R& D St at us and Trends i n Nanopart i cl es, Nano-
st ruct ured M at eri al s, and Nanodevi ces, R.W. Si egel , E. Hu, M .C. Roco
(eds.), 1998.
ht t p:/ / www.ost p.gov/ NSTC/ ht ml / i wgn/ IWGN.Worl dwi de.St udy/ t oc.ht m
WTEC Workshop on Ti ssue Engi neeri ng Research, Gai t hersburg 2000.
Japanese M i ni st ry of Int ernat i onal Trade and Indust ry:
ht t p:/ / w w w.j w i ndow.net / GOV/ CABINET/ M ITI/ home.ht ml
Proceedi ngs of t he 21st Int ernat i onal SAM PE Europe Conf erence Inno-
vat i ve Process and M at eri al Sol ut i ons f or Creat i ve Desi gn Ef f ect i ve-
ness , Pari s, Apri l 2000.
T. Gol dberg, SAM PE Journal , p.24, Vol .36, No.6, 2000.
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References