12.1 INTRODUCTION

Composite materials are utilized in the aircraft, sporting goods, infrastructure, transportation vehicle and marine industries. The most important properties of composites are strength, fabricability, repairability, durability, cost and fatigue and corrosion resistance (e.g., [1, 2]). In addition, dimensional stability is an important, even critical, requirement for many industries dependent on metrology, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), nanotechnology and optical components. Section 12.2 lists examples of applications where dimensional stability plays a major role in the required performance of the device, component or structure. Reasons for the criticality of dimensional stability are pointed out for selected applications in section 12.3. Other applications have been discussed in this book already, including nanotechnology (2.15), thin films (4.10.5), functionally graded materials (2.14) and whisker composites (4.10.7). General guidelines for the design of dimensionally stable materials, components and structures are given in section 12.4.

12.2 DIMENSIONALLY STABLE REQUIREMENTS

The dimensional stability requirements of composite materials employed for representative applications are discussed in the following references.

1. Aircraft [3 9, 168]

2. Antenna Structures [10 34]

3. Automotive [1,2,35 38, 169]

4. Biomedical [39 41]

5. Cryogenics [42 49]

6. Electronics [50 58, 162]

7. Fabrication [59 72, 160]

8. Flywheels [36, 73 76]

9. High Temperature [1,8, 77 81]

10. Instrument Components [53, 82, 83]

11. Large Space Structures [22, 84, 85]

12. Metering Functions [86 90]

13. Microwave Components [91 93]

14. Mirrors [24,94 99, 118,170]

15. Optical Support Structures [47, 88,104 118]

16. Radiation Environments [100 103, 152]

17. Radomes [119 121]

18. Smart Materials Technology [37, 122, 123,159, 161, 170]

19. Spacecraft Components [27, 28, 88,92,93,124 143, 164, 172]

20. Structural/Infrastructure [144 147]

21. Wind Turbines [148 150]

12.3 SELECTED APPLICATIONS

Selected applications are discussed as follows. The purpose is not...