Composites offer great promise as light and strong materials whose uses are no longer confined to high performance structures. Their major advantages, which are true for almost all composites, are increased stiffness with respect to homogeneous materials and in increased strength to crack extension. However, their application is still limited by the lack of complete knowledge about their strength under different load conditions and the prediction of the damage evolution and the way cracks develop in these materials is still an important topic of research.

This book contains recent developments and results in composite materials science, including contributions from well-known researchers in this specialist field. Both polymeric and metal matrix composites are included and investigated with experimental, analytical and numerical analyses.