ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to provide the development of procedures for cause and effect relationships between the component constituent properties, their geometrical and volumetric distribution in space, and the properties of a lamina. The prediction of thermal expansion of unidirectional composites as functions of constituent material properties and phase geometry has received considerable attention. The overall response of a ply or thin sheet of the composite containing many parallel filaments in a representative volume element, is thereby defined and the ply is subsequently treated as being homogeneous. An exact method of analyzing filamentary composites consists of assuming that the fibers are arranged in a regular periodic array. Composite materials are frequently employed in engineering applications in which one is concerned with the transport of electrical and/or magnetic fields, electrical conduction, heat conduction, or the permeation of a material by a contained fluid or vapor.
