UpDate - Vol. 11, No. 21, Page 7
February 27, 1992
Professor's textbook relates to Delaware experience

     For Tsu-Wei Chou, Jerzy L. Nowinski Professor of Mechanical
Engineering, publication of his new book Microstructural Design of
Fiber Composites, signifies more than just a completion of a major
research-related effort. He sees it as an experience intimately
related to his teaching experience at Delaware.
     "When I first came here in 1969," Chou recalled, "I felt a
strong need to teach our students the materials science aspects of
the evolving field of fiber composites."
     With a limited background on this subject, Chou decided to
learn with his students by offering a "special problems" course in
fiber composites in the spring semester of 1970.
     "It was a rewarding and exciting experience," he said. "The
students were very motivated, and I was often only a few steps
ahead of them."
     A year earlier, Jack R. Vinson, H. Fletcher Brown Professor of
Mechanical Engineering, had started another course of this type on
the structural mechanics aspects of fiber composites."Because of
the lack of formal teaching materials in this relatively new
field," Chou said, "Jack and I put our expertise together and
developed a textbook suitable for our students." Their
collaboration resulted in co-authorship of one of the earliest
textbooks on fiber composites, published in 1975.
     Composites education at the University has grown tremendously
since Vinson and Chou's early efforts. Expertise in experimental
mechanics was later added by R. Byron Pipes, now University provost
and vice president for academic affairs and Robert L. Spencer
Professor of Engineering.
     Pipes and Vinson have each authored several books in their
specialties as a result of their research and teaching in
composites. During the past seven years, educational programs in
composites at Delaware have further expanded. A larger group of
faculty is now involved, with expertise in design and manufacturing
of composites and, more recently, ceramic-based fiber composites.
     Recently published by the Cambridge University Press as part
of its Solid State Science Series, the book addresses the issue of
designing the microstructure of fiber composite materials to obtain
optimum performance.
     Intended as a text for graduate or advanced undergraduate
students, Chou's new book also may serve as a reference for
materials scientists and engineers who are working with composites.
He explains in the preface that the science and technology of
composite materials are based on a design concept fundamentally
different from that of conventional structural materials.
     Metallic alloys, for instance, generally exhibit a uniform
field of materials properties; hence, they can be treated as
homogeneous and isotropic (exhibiting the same properties in all
directions). Fiber composites, on the other hand, show a high
degree of spacial variation in their microstructures, resulting in
non-uniform and anisotropic properties (varying in different
directions).
     The theme of Chou's book is that composites technology offers
tremendous potential in enabling materials to be designed for
specific end uses at various levels of scale.
     First, at the microscopic level, the internal structure of a
component can be controlled through processing. Desired local
stiffness, strength, toughness and other pre-specified properties
can be achieved by controlling the fiber type, orientation and
volume fraction throughout the structural component.
     Second, the external geometrical shape of a structural
component can be designed. Advances in filament winding, for
example, enable automated production of structures with complex
contours. Fabrication of three-dimensional fiber preforms using
advanced textile technology is also feasible. As the ability to
fabricate larger and more integrated structural components of net
shape is further enhanced, the need to handle and join a large
number of small parts, as is currently done with metallic
materials, diminishes.
     Chou ends his book's preface with an acknowledgement that the
contents have evolved from his experience during two decades of
teaching and research on composite materials.
     "Teaching and research have to complement each other," he
said. "Writing books that document our research is one way we have
of reaching out to our students. Our primary goal here is to
educate students, who then use and disseminate their knowledge by
working in industry or teaching at other universities.
     "We can't isolate our teaching from our research because
engineering education at a university has to be both relevant and
up-to-date. I see the whole process as a cycle, with research
enriching teaching and vice versa."
                                        - Diane Kukich