Essay On Composite Materials

Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Composite Material
A unique structural material produced by combining two or more essential materials is known as a composite material. These materials possess superior material and mechanical properties when compared to the individual materials used in it. The resulting material will be distinct, robust and lighter in weight. Therefore these materials are very widely used in various applications such as buildings, bridges, aircraft, electrical and medical purposes. The recent advancements in this field have resulted in aerospace applications such as spacecraft and satellite structures. These materials are lesser in cost and have lower maintenance with high design flexibility. Hence any complicated shapes can be produced easily.

1.2 Classification of Composite Materials
Composite materials are generally classified based on the type of matrix material used as
(i) Polymer matrix composites (PMC)
(ii) Metal matrix composites (MMC)
(iii) Ceramic matrix composites (CMC)
(iv) Carbon- Carbon composites (CCC)
1.2.1 Polymer matrix composites
Polymer matrix composites is one of the most commonly used advanced composite materials. It consists of a polymer matrix

Secondary polyfunctional amines and additional hydroxyl content will be generated, when the primary amine reacts with the epoxide group. Tertiary amines are created when the secondary amines react with another epoxide group and also another set of hydroxyl group will be generated. A three dimensional cross linking structure is created by the usage of polyfunctional amines. Aliphatic, aromatic amines are generally used as the epoxy hardeners. Since aromatic amines produced better properties, they were more commonly used as epoxy hardeners. But these amines created health related issues during the fabrication process. Hence aliphatic and cycloaliphatic amines were chosen as better