What Are the Common Composite Materials? the Most Complete List

There are all kinds of materials in life. For example, composite materials are one of the most frequently used materials today. So do you know what are the common composite materials? Read this article, we will answer your questions!

What is a Composite Material?

Composite material refers to a composite material containing two or more materials, which has more excellent performance. Composite materials can be mainly divided into two categories: structural composite materials and functional composite materials.

Structural composite materials are materials used as load-bearing structures, and are basically composed of reinforcement components that can withstand loads and matrix components that can connect the reinforcements to form an integral material and at the same time play the role of transmitting force.

Functional composite materials are generally composed of functional body components and matrix components. The matrix not only plays the role of forming the whole, but also can synergize or strengthen the function. Functional composites refer to composites that provide other physical properties in addition to mechanical properties.

What Are the Common Composite Materials?

Kevlar

Kevlar is poly para-phenylene terephthalamide, which is a polymer composite material used as a structural material. They are mostly used on commercial aircraft. It is small in mass and high in strength. The tensile strength and unit mass tensile strength of aluminum alloy are both set at 1.0, Kevlar is 5.4 and 10.0, respectively, while cold-drawn steel is only 5.0 and 1.7.

FRP

The earliest composite materials. The glass fiber reinforced plastic used as a high-pressure container (a steel cylinder for storing high-pressure gases such as oxygen and hydrogen) is made of glass fiber and phenolic resin. Its application can not only save a lot of high-quality steel, but also the pressure resistance can reach 50MPa, and the glass steel cylinder filled with gas will roll down from a high place and will not explode or break. Fiberglass composite made of fiberglass and nylon can be used to make propellers for offshore fishing reels, which can save a lot of copper (in the past, most of the propellers of offshore fishing reels were made of copper, and only about 0.5t of copper was needed). An all-plastic bicycle with glass fiber reinforced plastic as the frame weighs only 7kg. Except for a few parts such as the engine, the body and interior decoration materials of the car are made of FRP and other plastics. FRP hulls have also been widely used in motorboats, minesweepers, lifeboats, yachts, racing boats, etc. FRP can also be used to make corrosion-resistant valves, pipes, pumps, fans, tankers, etc.

Carbon fiber

Reinforced plastic carbon fiber is made of viscose filament, polyacrylonitrile fiber, and pitch filament as raw materials, and carbonized at 1000-3000 ℃. Carbon fibers are extremely thin in diameter (around 7 μm) but are particularly strong. Carbon fiber reinforced plastics are increasingly used in aircraft and aerospace technology. In aircraft manufacturing, after replacing aluminum alloy or titanium alloy with it, the weight of the aircraft can be reduced by 15%. With the same amount of fuel, the flight distance can be increased by 10%, the ascent rate can be increased by 10%, and the runway during takeoff can be shortened by 15%.

Ablation material

Composite ablative materials made of glass fiber reinforced phenolic plastics or epoxy resins have been used in spacecraft and satellites. When spacecraft and artificial satellites return to the ground, they rub violently with the air, and the temperature of the outer shell can reach more than 5000 ℃. After the shell of the spacecraft uses ablation materials, under the conditions of high temperature and high pressure air flow, the ablation materials undergo pyrolysis, gasification, sublimation, melting, radiation, etc., and a large amount of heat is taken away through the loss of surface materials. Only a layer of skin is "skinned" on the surface, while the people, equipment, and materials inside are safely returned to the ground.

Mud bricks

What better way to introduce composites than to talk about mud bricks. Mud bricks came to be when people realized that straw was resistant to stretching and that dried mud copes well with compression.

The ancient Egyptians used a composite of clay mixed with straw. Developing countries use mud bricks to build their huts. Perhaps the introduction of the mud-brick is what inspired much more advanced composites, as we’ll see later on.

Wood

Wood (and trees, of course) have been around for thousands of years. Yet, you might be surprised to find out that wood is actually a composite. Wood is made of long fibers of cellulose that are held together by a weaker substance called lignin.

The organization of the cellulose within the wood is what makes some types of wood (like ironwood) stronger than others. Engineered wood, such as plywood, takes advantage of weaker woods by cutting them into thin pieces and then gluing them together. This gives plywood the flexibility and the softer qualities that allow for nailing into plywood.

Translucent concrete

Concrete is a primitive example of composite material because of the combination of small rocks and cement that it holds. When optic fibers, similar to those found in fiberglass, are added to concrete, you get translucent concrete. The look and feel of the concrete can vary depending on the ratio of cement to optic fibers.

Composite honeycomb

This is a broad category of composites that all share the same characteristic of a honeycomb design. Man-made composite honeycomb is useful because of its high compressive and shear strength. Honeycomb designs can make products cheaper since less material is required to achieve the same desired strength.

Engineered bamboo

Plywood, bamboo strips, and glue can be combined to create engineered bamboo flooring. Bamboo’s high tensile strength, hardness, and lightweight nature make it desirable when combined into a composite flooring material.

In fact, temporary bamboo huts were constructed for victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. This just comes to show how useful bamboo can be in lightweight construction applications.

Other composite materials

Ceramic matrix composite: Ceramic spread out in a ceramic matrix. These are better than normal ceramics as they are thermal shock and fracture resistant

Metal matrix composite: A metal spread throughout a matrix

Reinforced concrete: Concrete strengthened by a material with high tensile strength such as steel reinforcing bars

Glass fibre reinforced concrete: Concrete which is poured into a glass fibre structure with high zirconia content

Translucent concrete: Concrete which encases optic fibres

Engineered wood: Manufactured wood combined with other cheap materials. One example would be particle board. A speciality material like veneer can also be found in this composite

Plywood: Engineered wood by gluing many thin layers of wood together at different angles

Engineered bamboo: Strips of bamboo fibre glued together to make a board. This is a useful composite due to the fact it has higher compressive, tensile and flexural strength than wood

Parquetry: A square of many wood pieces put together often out of hardwood. It is sold as a decorative piece

Wood-plastic composite: Either wood fibre or flour cast in plastic

Cement-bonded wood fibre: Mineralised wood pieces cast in cement. This composite has insulating and acoustic properties

Fibreglass: Glass fibre combined with a plastic which is relatively inexpensive and flexible

Sandwich panel: A variety of composites that are layered on top of each other

Composite honeycomb: A selection of composites in many hexagons to form a honeycomb shape.

Papier-mache: Paper bound with an adhesive. These are found in crafts

Plastic coated paper: Paper coated with plastic to improve durability. An example of where this is used is in playing cards

Syntactic foams: Light materials created by filling metals, ceramics or plastics with microballoons. These ballons are made using either glass, carbon or plastic