Cairo University

Faculty of Engineering
Mining, Petroleum and Metallurgy Department
4th Year Metallurgy

Elective Course (2) -

Composite Materials
MET 443
LECTURE 2
By Dr. Ahmed Hatem Al-Khoribi
• Fibers
• Definition and Function

• A fiber is a material made into a long filament. A

single fiber is called a filament. The filament is
very thin and has very small diameter (diameter
ranges from 5 to 15 m).
• Surface defects occur more often when using
bigger fibers diameters. Basically, the used fiber
can be continuous or discontinuous. In case of
continuous fibers, the aspect ratio (length-to-
diameter ratio) can be ranging from thousand to
infinity.
• Generally speaking, fibers usually form 40-60 % of
the volume of the composite.
• Fibers are the principal constituents in a fiber
reinforced composite material.
• The main functions of fibers are to carry the load
and provide stiffness, strength, thermal stability,
and other structural properties to the FRP.
• To carry out these functions, the fibers present in
FRP laminate must have excellent properties such
as high modulus of elasticity, high ultimate
strength, and low variation of strength among
fibers.
• Other important properties include high stability
of fiber strength during handling and high
uniformity of diameter and surface dimensions
among fibers.
• They carry and share the major portion of the load
acting on the composite structure.
• Proper selection of the fiber type, fiber length,
and fiber orientation is very crucial since it
affects several properties and characteristics of
composite laminates, such as density, tensile
and compressive strengths, electrical and
thermal conductivities, thermal expansion
coefficient, and cost.
• Since the diameter of the filament is very
small, filaments are difficult to handle.
• Therefore, the useful form of commercial fibers
is a bundle, which is produced by gathering a
large number of continuous filaments, either
in untwisted or twisted form.
• The untwisted form is usually called strand for
glass and aramid (Kevlar) fibers and tow for
carbon fibers. The twisted form is usually called
yarn.
• Forms of Fibers
• There are various forms of fibers used as a
reinforcement of polymer composites.
Generally, most manufacturers of structural
elements made of FRP composites usually
present the variety of reinforcement
techniques in specifications/design guides.
• Basically, there are two forms of
reinforcement: bundles and fabrics (weaves).
• Note: Fabrics (weaves) are two-dimensional
assemblies that have the form of flat sheets of one or
more layers of fibers. The layers are held together by
mechanical interlocking or with secondary materials
that bind fibers together and hold them in place. The
fibers are oriented at 0 degrees and 90 degrees.
• Note: Roving is a loosely assembled bundle of
untwisted parallel strands or tows without twisting,
i.e. it is provided in rolls. Rovings are preferred for
many reinforcements because they have higher
mechanical properties than twisted yarns.

Examples of rovings:
a) Glass roving
b) Carbon roving
c) Aramid roving
• A bundle can be considered as a one-
dimensional reinforcement of polymer
composites.
• It can be classified into the following groups:
1. Smooth bundle: where a group of filaments
(fibers) are arranged longitudinally in a typical
free manner.
2. Interlaced bundle: where a group of filaments
are arranged longitudinally with elementary
fibers interlaced (attached the same way as
shoes laces) in a loop to mechanically connect
neighbouring
bundles.
3. Tangled bundle: where a group of filaments
are arranged longitudinally, interlaced
mutually in order to provide a better
connection of the neighbouring filaments in a
single bundle.
4. Stapled fibers: short filaments made by
cutting the smooth bundle.
5. Minced fibers: very short filaments obtained
by milling and sifting (mixing vigorously)
stapled fibers.
 a)

b)

c)

Figure shows various forms of bundle:

a) smooth bundle
b) interlaced bundle
c) tangled bundle
• In order to strengthen the FRP composite
materials in more than one direction of
reinforcement, fabrics are used rather than
bundles.
• In general, fabrics are unidirectional or
bidirectional continuous or discontinuous
fibers.
• Fabrics can be classified into the following
groups:
1. Plain weave fabric: is the simplest and most
common fabric that is made of perpendicular
filaments aligned in a criss-cross pattern.
Thus, it is basically a woven fabric that
consists of warp and weft (fill). A lamina
made of plain fabric is a bidirectional weave
since the fibers are of bidirectional
orientations. Since the lamina is balanced in
this case, properties are the same in both
directions (longitudinal and transverse
directions)
• The figure below shows weaving process of
fabrics in general.
2. Oblique weave fabric: a fabric that is
characterized by its diagonal lines. It is a
bidirectional weave.
3. Satin weave fabric: is a weave that has a shiny
surface and a dull back. It is a bidirectional
weave.

• Note: In satin weave fabric, each weft yarn

floats over four warp yarns before going
under the fifth one. For this reason, it is called
a 5-harness satin.
4. Smooth unidirectional fabric: a fabric made of
unidirectional smooth bundle. It is more
commonly known as unidirectional preform.
Unidirectional fabric offers maximum tensile
strength along the principle orientation axis
(along the direction of the fiber), but
minimum tensile strength occurs
perpendicular to the direction of the fiber.
This results in anisotropic composites; that is,
the mechanical and physical properties are
not the same in all directions.
5. Mat: a fabric made of discontinuous (short)
random fibers. The fibers are discontinuous
(short) and at the same time they are randomly
oriented. With random orientation of fibers, it is
possible to obtain equal mechanical and physical
properties in all directions in the plane of the
lamina.
6. Interlaced plain fabric: a fabric made of
interlaced bundles connected to each other. It is
made of discontinuous (short) fibers
aligned/arranged in three or more specific
orientations/directions.
• Note: The first three groups consist of
bidirectional fibers while the fourth group
consists of unidirectional fibers. The fifth and
sixth groups consist of multidirectional fibers.
a) b)

Examples of fabrics:
a) plain fabric
b) oblique fabric
c) d)

Examples of fabrics:
c) satin fabric
d) Smooth unidirectional
fabric
e) f)

Examples of fabrics:
e) mat fabric
f) interlaced fabric