Call for papers: "Behaviour of Composite Laminates under Severe Conditions"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Automotive Composites.

At present, composite laminates are being used in a large number of applications where they are required to perform safely while being exposed to severe conditions such as impact, crashes, fatigue, fire, etc. The applications range from aerospace structures to boats and several kinds of ground vehicles including sports cars, busses and railway carriages, to name a few.

In these and many other engineering applications, laminates made of composite materials operating under adverse conditions are expected to have the necessary load carrying capacity to complete their missions without failure. However, many composites such as carbon fibre-reinforced plastics demonstrate brittle material behaviour and low thermal resistance, making them susceptible to failure under operational conditions.

This makes it important to understand composite laminate behaviour and modes of failure when subjected to dynamic, environmental and/or thermal loads stemming from impact, crashes, fire, etc. Such loads may lead to failure by delamination, fragmentation and fatigue, among other things. Due to the complex nature of composites, an understanding of their macroscopic behaviour requires experimental, computational and analytical tools, with the presence of severe conditions adding another level of complexity to gaining a full understanding of the problems associated with their mechanical and physical behaviour.

This special issue aims at bringing together studies on the simulation and analysis of composite laminates operating under adverse loading conditions with the objective of understanding the relevant failure modes and formulating reliable design tools. These studies will be of interest to a large number of researchers, engineers and designers using composites in a wide range of engineering applications.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• High-velocity impact
• Low-velocity impact
• Crash response
• Damage mechanics
• Damage tolerance
• Fragmentation
• Delamination
• Fatigue failure of laminates
• Laminates subjected to aggressive environmental conditions
• Environmental degradation of composites
• Nonlinear vibrations
• Thermal shock
• Crushing of composites
• Behaviour of composites exposed to fire

Important Dates

Submission of Manuscripts: 1 October  2015
Notification to Authors: 1 December 2015
Revised Versions Due: 4 January  2016
Final Versions Due: 8 February 2016