Abstract
Avoidance of catastrophic failure of a large structure is to design the material’s microstructure in such a way as to render any crack that forms innocuous thereby raising the integrity of that structure. Predicting lifetime requires a knowledge of the state of damage in the material at all times up to the point of failure. The structural integrity (SI) of the structure depends upon a number of interacting factors: the criticality of the application; the accessibility for and ability to inspect vital parts and components; the intended use including load spectrum and time; the consequences of impact, fatigue, environment, temperature, and hostile environment; the nature of inherent flaws; the properties of the material system utilized; and it takes into account “human factors.” The SI of a composite structure embraces contributions from materials science and engineering; fabrication technology and processing science. This chapter seeks an overview of advanced composite materials in the 21st century; a perspective on designing composite structures having SI.
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