This course deals with the theory, analysis and design of fibre reinforced composite materials. Composite materials, e.g. carbon fibre composites, are highly efficient materials for structural applications enabling substantial weight savings and thereby reduced energy consumption and environmental impact for especially vehicles such as a cars, trucks, airliners, ships and trains. A composite material is built up of two or more constituents; a fibre phase and a matrix phase. The architecture is such that enables tailoring of properties by utilising the stiff and strong fibre in the directions where they are most useful. However, this creates an anisotropic material which requires special treatment in its analysis and design.
In this course we develop the theory for composite laminates in order to predict stiffness and strength properties. We develop a special computer code for its application to general types of laminates. We then extend this to study composite plates. We also study some other special features of composite laminates including an overview of how to use FEM when designing composite structures. At the end of the course an open-ended design problem is solved in order to train engineering skills. Industrial relevance of the course contents are provided by guest lectures from industry.