We consider composite materials consisting of continuous or discontinuous fibers embedded in a matrix. Such a composite is heterogeneous, and the properties vary from point to point. On a scale that is large with respect to the fiber diameter, the fiber and matrix properties may be averaged, and the material may be treated as homogeneous. This assumption, commonly employed in macromechanical analyses of composites, is adopted here. Hence, the material is considered to be quasi-homogeneous, which implies that the properties are taken to be the same at every point. These properties are not the same as the properties of either the fiber or the matrix but are a combination of the properties of the constituents.

In this chapter, equations are presented for calculating the displacements, stresses, and strains when the structure undergoes only small deformations and the material behaves in a linearly elastic manner.

Continuous fiber-reinforced composite materials (and structures made of such materials) often have easily identifiable preferred directions associated with fiber orientations or symmetry planes. It is therefore convenient to employ two coordinate systems: a local coordinate system aligned, at a point, either with the fibers or with axes of symmetry, and a global coordinate system attached to a fixed reference point (Fig. 2.1). In this book the local and global Cartesian coordinate systems are designated respectively by x1, x2, x3 and the x, y, z axes.