Composite Materials

· Composites also show an advantage in crack growth rate and critical crack size.
· To detect flaws in a structural component they must be large enough to see or find using ultrasound or other inspection methods. Flaws of a similar size can be found in metals and composites.

· The inspection safety margin depends on how fast cracks grow. Once a crack reaches a critical size rapid fracture occurs. The cycle margin between the inspection threshold and fast fracture is better for composites than metals.