TABLE OF CONTENTS Zheng-Ming Huang 1 and S.Ramakrishna 2
1 Department of EngineeringMechanics, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai 200092, P.R.China, E-mail: huangzm@mail.tongji.edu.cn
2Biomaterials Laboratory, Division of Bioengineering, Department of MechanicalEngineering, National University of Singapore, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 119260
Composites are materials that contain two or more distinct constituent phases on a scale larger than that of atomic. Compared with traditional homogeneous materials such as metals, ceramics, and polymers, the main advantage of the composites is that their mechanical, biological, and other physical properties can be tailored to the requirements of specific applications. This chapter focuses on composites that are suitable for biomedical applications. Various application practices documented in literature have been summarized in the chapter. Some of the commonly used methods for composite fabrications are introduced. Attention has been given to the mechanics of composites: a study which aims at estimating the mechanical properties of different composites using only the material parameters and geometric information of their constituents. Some future trends are also given at the end of the chapter.
A composite material is a physical mixture of two or more distinct constituents. It has radically different properties from those of each constituent. Except for some interfacial reactions to ensure good bonding, no chemical reactions or any alloying exist between the constituents in a composite. Though a composite can be made of two or more constituents, in most cases the composite comprises only two constituents: the matrix phase and the reinforcing phase. The matrix phase is...
