Fiber reinforced composites can offer high specific strength when compared with structural materials such as aluminium and steel. In the aerospace industry, year after year manufacturers have increasingly moved towards replacing various metals with continuous fiber composites for large areas of primary structure. Replacing metals with composites has resulted in important advantages such as reduced costs from labor, more efficient structures and reduced maintenance costs.

The topics covered are of high relevance to the engineering community, since they affect durability and safety of large engineering structures (aircraft, ships, bridges, etc..).  Building on the direct experience of the authors in industry and academia, this book will introduce the reader to the latest strategies in the development of a composite structure and the assessment of the effects of defects.

The book will comprise six major sections including introductory material characteristics of composites; main types of manufacturing defects encountered in service; discussion of the latest manufacturing methods and non-destructive technologies that can be used for inspecting composite structures; design issues of a composite structure related to failure and strength analysis; the latest regulatory requirements associated with successfully being able to certify a composite structure along with relevant standards associated with design philosophy and criteria; and the last section delves into testing associated with design philosophy and criteria.  This book will discuss the testing strategies for these defects and the properties that can be impacted by these defects. It finally presents methods for statistical analysis and processing of experimental effects of defects test data.