Summary
The major constituents that comprise a composite are considered in this chapter and a method of making an initial selection is outlined. The use of databases for material selection is briefly considered. The basis of collecting and assessing data for inclusion in this book is discussed.
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Reference Information
General references
Johnston, A.F. (1986) Engineering Design Properties of GRP, BPF, London — useful source of information though compiled in 1978.
Engineered Materials Handbook, Volume 1: Composites; Volume 2: Engineering Plastics (1987) ASM International, Metals Park, Ohio — comprehensive compilation of data with explanatory text.
Richardson, T. (1987) Composites: A Design Guide, Industrial Press, New York — good summary of fillers and their properties.
Zweben, C. et al. (1989) Mechanical Behaviour and Properties of Composite Materials, Technomic, Lancaster — overview of mechanical properties with theoretical explanations.
Material constituents
Crystic Polyester Handbook (1990) Scott-Bader, Woolaston — useful information on curing and post-curing of composites.
Materials selection
Ashby, M.F. and Waterman, N. A. (1991) Material Selection Guide, Volume 3: Plastics and Composites, Elsevier, Barking — very extensive data.
ESA Handbook on Composites (1989) ESA, Nordwijk — comprehensive compilation of data for space applications.
Chemres II: Plastics and Rubbers Computer Aided Chemical Resistance Selector (1991) RAPRA, Shawbury.
Plascams: Plastics, a Computer Aided Materials Selector (1991) RAPRA, Shawbury.
Peritus: Engineering Materials Database (1991) Matsel Systems, Liverpool.
The three databases above are designed to select optimum materials for specific requirements; some data is available in them for each material, but is not comprehensive.
Data assessment
Bibliographic base for plastics, 1991, RAPRA, Shawbury — some 450,000 entries dating back to 1917.
Test methods and standards
Mayer, R.M. (ed.) (1993) Design with Reinforced Plastics, Design Council, London — Chapter 7 surveys existing test methods.
Perinorm Database (1993) BSI, Milton Keynes — complete set of standards for UK, France, Germany and international standards ISO, IEC and CEN/CENELEC.
BSI Standards Catalogue (1993) BSI, Milton Keynes — current list of UK standards.
ASTM Standards Handbook, Volume 8: Plastics (1991) ASTM, Philadelphia.
Benchmark tests: VAMAS — international collaboration on materials characterization and testing. Contact Graham Sims, NPL, Queens Road, Teddington, Middlesex TW11 0LW, UK, Tel. (44) 081 977 3222.
Data reduction
BS 5480: Specification for GRP pipes, joints and fittings for use for water supply and sewerage (1991) BSI, Milton Keynes.
Data in design
BS 7000: A guide to managing product design (1989) BSI, Milton Keynes. Check list of design tasks — design stages are described more fully in Mayer, 1993, Chapters 1 to 3.
Information sources
RAPRA Technology Ltd, Shawbury, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY4 4NR, UK, Tel. (44) 0939 25 03 83. Supplier of bibliographic, Plascams and Chemres databases — also provides general information.
Materials Information Service, Design Council, 28 Haymarket, London, SW1Y 4SO, UK, Tel. (44) 071 839 80 00. Helpline, information service, access to databases.
Institute of Mechanical Engineering, 1 Birdcage Walk, London, SW1H 9JJ, UK, Tel. (44) 071 222 78 99. Access to various bibliographic bases and Perinorm.
Databases
These are becoming more readily available for PC-compatible computers — the larger bases like Perinorm and RAPRA bibliographic base require a CD-ROM reader — smaller bases like Matsel’s Peritus and RAPRA’s Plascams and Chemres are available on floppy disks.
Search strategies
Databases contain a vast amount of information and each requires its own search strategy to obtain effective access to the information.
For this book, a set of descriptors was devised with the aid of RAPRA to scan the entries in their bibliographic base; for example glass-reinforced epoxy had 947 entries of which 203 are books and conference proceedings and 40 are monographs, trade references and standards.
Adding the descriptor ‘hard data’ reduced the entries to 200 and these were further reduced by adding descriptors like flexural properties and fatigue properties. Readers could use similar strategies to obtain specific information for their application.
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© 1994 Rayner M. Mayer
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Hancox, N.L., Mayer, R.M. (1994). Material Selection and Data Assessment. In: Design Data for Reinforced Plastics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0707-5_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0707-5_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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