The field of composite materials has seen substantial development in the past decade, New composite systems are being continually developed for various applications. Among such systems are metal, intermetallic, and superalloy matrix composites, carbon-carbon composites as well as polymer matrix composites. At the same time, a new discipline has emerged of active or smart materials, which are often constructed as composite or heterogeneous media and structures. One unifying theme in these diverse systems is the influence that uncoupled and coupled eigenfields or transformation fields exert on...

The field of composite materials has seen substantial development in the past decade, New composite systems are being continually developed for various applications. Among such systems are metal, intermetallic, and superalloy matrix composites, carbon-carbon composites as well as polymer matrix composites. At the same time, a new discipline has emerged of active or smart materials, which are often constructed as composite or heterogeneous media and structures. One unifying theme in these diverse systems is the influence that uncoupled and coupled eigenfields or transformation fields exert on...

Polymer composites were introduced for the aerospace industry as light, strong, stiff materials, and adopted by the construction and automobile industries, among others. Meanwhile, composite materials have been introduced to fulfill the uses that these conventional materials could not, such as in extreme environments. The research for new composites includes not only new polymer systems, but metals, ceramics and intermetallic systems as well. This volume contains a selection of recent work by leading researchers in micromechanics on the topics of prediction of overall properties of elastic,...