Composites Design and Manufacture Lecture
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Composites Design and Manufacture is a core module for "with composites" engineering as a specialist pathway" available to students on

  • BEng/MEng (honours) Mechanical Engineering
    UCAS codes are H300 (BEng)/H304 (MEng).
  • BEng/MEng (honours) Marine Technology(
    UCAS codes are J610 (BEng)/J612 (MEng).
  • BEng (honours) Mechanical Engineering with Aerospace (Level 6 Top-Up)
    Leonardo Helicopters apprentices registered with Yeovil College.

This module was an option embedded in STAD322 for the BEng/MEng (honours) Civil Engineering course during 2007-2012.

The Digital Learning Environment (MooDLE) and Definitive Module Record (DMR) can be accessed via the following links if you have University of Plymouth login credentials:

The composites degree is accredited by both IMechE and IOM3 and membership of those professional organisations is highly recommended.  Also SAMPE provides professional support with a more industrial flavour:

IOM3 composites group logo
IMechE logo IMechE logo
SAMPE logo

This module is complemented by MATS348 Composites Engineering. Students should also complete a quality management module as integral part of the learning for this degree pathway.  These modules provide an integrated approach to structural analysis, design, materials and processing selection, and quality issues for composite materials.

This module aims to:

  • develop a broad understanding of the diverse range of constituent materials and to appreciate the principles which guide their selection for engineering applications
  • appreciate the range of manufacturing processes for composite materials and to understand the interactions between manufacture, quality and performance.
The support material for this course has been partitioned into the following sections:
Theme  Topic
book icon from SoftIcons
 Lecturer  Reading lists
book icon = recommended key texts
A  Materials Selection and Characterisation  John Summerscales ILS TalisAspire  JS' list A
Clyne & Hullbook icon  Bunsell et albook icon
B  Stress Analysis
(now in MATS348)
 Maozhou Meng
(formerly Stephen Grove)
ILS TalisAspire  JS' list B
Daniel & Ishaibook icon   Gaybook icon   Gibsonbook icon   Hollawaybook icon   Piggottbook icon
C  Manufacturing Processes  John Summerscales ILS TalisAspire  JS' list C
Åströmbook icon   Strongbook icon

Brief overviews:   Materials selection   Composites manufacturing   Composites characterisation

Primo is the single place where you can find resources to support your learning, teaching and research.  The Library catalogue uses the Dewey system.  The following shelfmarks are relevant to this course:

Composite materials Man-made fibres Polymer chemistry Polymer technology Reinforced plastics Textiles
620.118 547.85 547.84 668.4 620.1923 677

Fibre-reinforced polymer-matrix composite materials and structures:
links for case studies, courses, resources, software, suppliers, videos

The following resources cover most issues:

The two books by course staff are available to Plymouth students as free PDF e-books
when you login to the Primo catalogue for access via ScienceDirect:

The Granta CES EduPack software is "the world-leading teaching resource for materials in engineering, science, processing and design".  The Plymouth University license agreement permits students and staff to load the software on their home computer/laptop.  The instructions can be found in the announcements on the MATS347 and MATS232 MooDLE sites.


HEALTH & SAFETY
It is important that all students are aware of the Health and Safety considerations for this module.  You will be required to attend the Health and Safety presentation and to sign to confirm that you have done so before you will be allowed to use the facilities in the composites laboratory (Babbage 111). This support material can be accessed online.


ADVANCED COMPOSITES MANUFACTURING CENTRE
The centre (abbreviated to ACMC), effective during 1987-2013, embraced the undergraduate teaching, postgraduate research and commercial research - development - consultancy activities within what was then the School of Engineering at the University of Plymouth.  Over 2600 delegates attended Continuing Professional Development courses and workshops during that period.
COMSOL MATERIALS LIBRARY
The Material Library contains data for 2500 materials including the elements, minerals, soil, metal alloys, oxides, steels, thermal insulators, semiconductors, and optical materials. You specify a material in the Material Library browser, which enables you to easily find the desired material by name, or UNS (Unified Numbering System) number. Each material is represented by referenced property functions for as many as 24 key material properties, such as thermal, elastic, or electrical properties, depending on some variable, typically temperature. You can plot and inspect these function definitions, as well as change and add to them. They are then used in any coupling to other physics simulations that also depend on the property function variable in your multiphysics modelling.
ONLINE RESOURCES
If you are working off-campus and need Athens authentication to access PlymNet electronic resources (you will need your PlymNet ID and password), precede the URL with ...
   https://exchange.plymouth.ac.uk/portal/library/rl=

This twenty-credit module was "new" in Academic Year 2004/05 as MATS324 and renumbered as MATS347 from AY 2015/16.  It combines two former ten-credit modules:

Former module codes 2004-2015 2003-2004 2001-2003 1995-2001 1993-1995 1990-1993
Composites Design MATS 324 MATS 322 MATS 318 MATS 313 MATS 302 MC3.1 Materials for composites
MC3.2 Engineering composite structures
Composites Manufacture MATS 324 MATS 323 MATS 319 MATS 314 MATS 303 MC3.3 Composite manufacturing processes
MC3.4 Composite manufacturing systems

BROKEN LINKS

These teaching support materials have developed over an extended timescale and the server hosts have changed a couple of times. If you find broken links starting with

  • http://www.tech.plym.ac.uk/sme/MATS324
  • http://www.tech.plym.ac.uk/sme/MATS347
  • https://www.fose1.plymouth.ac.uk/sme/MATS347

then replace the string with https://ecm-academics.plymouth.ac.uk/jsummerscales/mats347/.

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Updated by John Summerscales on 08-Jan-2024 15:28. Terms and conditions. Errors and omissions. Corrections.