MECHANICS OF COMPOSITE MATERIALS

Transforming Composite Materials Education for STEM College Students

 

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Love and composites
Rebekah Freilich

So there I was awaiting my date
Wondering what kind of substance he will have
Which bar will he try to take me to
Will I fall head over heals or will I just fall apart.

I am hoping he will take me to the S bar
To drink my stress into strain, which hopefully he can massage away
And not to the Q bar will just transform all my global strain into global stress
Which cannot be alleviated by just a massage.

That will require that he gets me lasagna to go
And snuggles up to watch a movie of my choice
Will he fail due to the stress of watching a chick flick?
Or will it be some combination of the stress and strain?

Will he change me somehow or leave no impression at all?
Guess it will depend on which way he tries to pull me in
And if we are stronger together as one rather than two
But I cannot answer these questions till I meet him and examine his properties.
 


Chapter by Chapter
Elliot Rice


Dr. Kaw is too raw, he wrote a book, composite materials,

It's actually tight, I read it every night.
In my dreams it's all I see.

Glass, boron, graphite, all night, epoxy, aluminum, polyamide, all night.
Is this the "The Matrix" or real life?

Actually it's linear algebra, like Comp Methods round two, yeah he wrote that book too.
Combine that with mechanics of materials, I know you not serious. All that for a few laminas?

Lamina, laminate, is it not the same?

You want to know, take the class, Kaw will set you straight.
Get the book, come to class, open your mind, and do NOT bring the TI-89.
Where to start?

Ask Dan Rather, I'm sure he'll text you from the Dreamliner, you know Dr. Kaw's favorite plane.
Go to chapter 1, read it all, learn the history, you know it'll be on the quiz.

Chapter 2, before we start, block out, out of plane loads, now like Batman Begins the fun begins.
Macro-mechanical analysis, compliance, stiffness, Q-bar, S-bar matrices, "lasagna to go",

It's all important, it's all related besides there's a whole test on it yo.
Chapter 3, micro-mechanical analysis, fiber, matrix, weight, volume fractions, they all sum to 1.
Chapter 4, It's not a bore, it's based on codes, and finally laminates.

Mid plane strains, mid plane curvatures, you'll need them both if you want global strain.

Chapter 5, designing using composites, from a pressure vessel to a drive shaft.
To ease the pain use PROMAL, awarding winning software, designed by… I bet you know who.
Overwhelmed, intimidated, why, Dr. Kaw says he's knows "very little."
December 5th, when it's over you can tell your kids "it's not magic guys"

But instead "high school algebra."

 


Worth My Time
Luke Snyder


When an engineer designs a composite, he thinks of all that he can gain,
He thinks, "What is my application, and what material properties do I want to obtain?"
He finds the fiber, matrix, and stacking sequence that suits best,
slaps them all together and finds G12 using a 10 degree tensile test.

What to do with it all, how to make sense of the confusion?
Solve a 6x6 matrix, its enough to give the brain a contusion,
So many properties, so much to find,
He begins to ask himself, "Will this composite ever be worth my time?"

But then uses the best composite program of them all,
PROMAL to find the global stresses and strains, but that's not all
He sees strength ratios, midplane strains, and midplane curvatures galore,
For anyone else, all this would surely be a complicated bore.

But for this engineer, his interest was found,
By someone who's mind with Newton-Raphson, Euler, and Runge-Kutta abound,
Were it not for this someone to guide the way the journey would have been bleak,
But now its safe to say that he is a composites freak!
 


Ubiquitous Composites
Christian Martinez

Composite Materials are very complex
If you don't study hard you won't pass the test
Macromechanics of a Laminate is not magic
If you study hard you'll see the logic.

Bring a TI-89 to class?
Not to this class okay
Go and buy a TI-30XA
Go and put it in your cart, at the best place to start is Wal-Mart.

Lamina Laminate they sound a-like but they're not the same
One of them is made up of the other
If you can't figure it out, don't be bothered
Class number EML6232 will show you.

Composite Materials are everywhere
Look around and you'll see them there
There at NASA, even there at your home
Even inside your body, namely your bones.
 


Precious Gift
Sri Harsha Garapati

Composite is a precious gift given by God
It's only for some lucky people
But for those only
who knew mechanics of composite materials.

Its hell to analyze it
But PROMAL is like heaven
Sent from above as God's grace to engineers.

When you think to design a aero structure
It is all you think about
Coz it's a combination of sugar, spice and every thing nice.

Among materials it is a LEO
And can charm you with his properties like strength and reliability
It gave the hope for the Dreamliner and the space shuttle
This is why designers take it as a adorable material.

 


The Composites Review
Kevin Holmes

Composites are made of a matrix and fiber,
They're used in place of other materials to make products lighter.
Early examples were made of clay and straw,
Too learn more about them, I took a class with Dr. Kaw.

We've gone through chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5,
And I've been "cutting the potato" to stay alive.
We're now onto laminate failure, analysis, and design,
All the easy stuff is out of sight, but not out of mind.

The class is intense but I'm learning a lot,
I can solve any problem right on the spot.
Stresses, strains, failure theories, and 6-by-6 matrices,
With my TI-30Xa, I can solve them with ease.

Well, it's ten ‘til two so I better head to class,
I've got to pay attention and take notes to pass.
It's a little intimidating being in class with graduate folk,
But, my spirits should be lifted when I hear Dr. Kaw's latest joke.
 


Composite Materials Class Song
Chris Jones

Dr. Kaw is the best professor of all,
I'm taking composites with him in the fall.
My name is C. Jones and I sit in the back row,
Ask me about composites, I'll tell you all you need to know.

Local to global, stress to strain,
Write it all on paper even though it's a pain.
Do your homework and ace your tests,
To pass this class you have to be the best.

Sixty degree angle ply problem,
Yea it looks hard but I learned how to solve them.
I am crunching numbers on my TI-30X,
Spent so much time cutting potatoes, my girlfriend is now my ex.

Composite materials are the way to go,
Forget steel and aluminum, they are just for show.
That's all for now, I'm done for today,
The next shuttle design is on its way!
 


The Composite Potato
Matt Kunze

Sittin in the library T-pain rock'n my headphones
Its late, I haven't eaten, I just want to go home
My book is open to page 310
I hope I never see a problem like this again

Lamina are hard gotta find the local stress and strain
Solving matrix algebra with my TI 30-XA
There's just way to much to calculate
Gotta do well, heaven knows I want to graduate
Chorus
I'm cutting the composite potato
Studying all through the night
Symmetric Lamina
Out of plane loads
I gotta get these answers right
I'd rather just mash the potato
Cause those taste much better to me
I swear that I've never
Had to study so hard
Just to earn a C
So I'm cutting the composite potato

The Q bar matrix makes me want to throw the book off a bridge
Dr. Kaw's a good teacher and my jokes aren't as good as his
So I'm stuck here in this cellar till they tell me that I have to go
I just finished chapter 4 but there's so much more I have to know
Chorus
I'm cutting the composite potato
Studying all through the night
Symmetric Lamina
Out of plane loads
I gotta get these answers right
I'd rather just mash the potato
Cause those taste much better to me
I swear that I've never
Had to study so hard
Just to earn a C
So I'm cutting the composite potato

The Promal software
Is a great calculator
But I don't get the right answer
Until 3 questions later
I'm cutting the composite potato
Studying all through the night
Symmetric Lamina
Out of plane loads
I gotta get these answers right
I'd rather just mash the potato
Cause those taste much better to me
I swear that I've never
Had to study so hard
Just to earn a C
So I'm cutting the composite potato
 


The Plight of the Fiber
Kevin Adcox
This is a song about the emotions and hardships fibers face everyday. Some engineers claim they are just too difficult to work with, and not worth the extra trouble. I wrote this song to enlighten and make people aware of the other side of the story.

Imagine there's a struggle
It's harder than the norm
Each equation used
You'll have to transform
Imagine how tedious
Solving these all day

Imagine two Poisson's ratios
I doubt that you can
A shear coupling term
No one can understand
Imagine how tedious
A six by six matrix

You see, I'm a weave here
But I'm not the only one
There's a matrix that joins us
As a laminate, we are one

Imagine there's no person
Willing to give you a try
Not even Dan Rather
Wants to see you fly
Imagine how tedious
Dealing with my moduli

You see, I'm a weave here
But I'm not the only one
There's a matrix that joins us
As a laminate, we bond as one


Copyrights: University of South Florida, 4202 E Fowler Ave, Tampa, FL 33620-5350. All Rights Reserved.

Questions, suggestions or comments, contact kaw@usf.edu 

Introduction to Composite Materials is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.