ABSTRACT
Many engineered composite materials are designed with similar objectives, often yielding materials that are stronger, lighter, or less expensive than traditional materials. The reinforcements impart their particular mechanical and physical properties to enhance the matrix properties. Like biological materials, engineered composites are often anisotropic, due to the orientation of the reinforcements. Engineered composite materials include concrete, fiber-reinforced plastic, metal composites, and ceramic composites. Concrete itself is a “composite,” in the sense that it results from the combination of several materials. Many commercially produced composites use a polymer matrix material often called a resin solution. There are many different polymers available depending upon the starting raw ingredients. Polymer-based composites are ubiquitous in modern society, beloved for their moldability into a wide variety of shapes, for their ability to be optimized for certain properties, and for their lightness and seeming indestructibility. Ceramic matrix composites were engineered to combat a weakness of standard ceramics: their very low crack resistance.
