ABSTRACT
For all composite materials, the properties of the composite are a weighted average of the properties of the component materials. For fibre composites, this chapter considers the direction in which the loads are applied with respect to the orientation of the fibres, in which the fibres are infinitely long and thus perfectly elastically bonded to the matrix; the fibres are all aligned parallel in the same direction and evenly distributed; and the fibres and matrix both behave in a linear elastic manner. For many frp composites, the converse is true in that we are often interested in laminated composites with many layers of plies, but (in serviceability limit state design at least) we rarely stress the composite to the point where one of the phases fails. In reality, the properties of laminates are rather more complex owing to interactions between tensile and shear stresses and strains, both within and between individual plies.
