Publisher's Synopsis
Little excuse is necessary for a book on composite materials in general and on the mechanics of composite materials in particular. The dramatic increase in the use of composite materials and structural elements for almost all conceivable applications increasingly calls for the development of rigorous mathematical models capable of predicting their mechanical behaviour under any given set of conditions.;The composites with a regular structure that are the subject matter of this book, are not only worth considering because of their numerous practical uses in a wide range of fields but also have an obvious advantage over many other composite material types in their being more amenable to theoretical analysis.;A very effective tool that has been developed for treatment of such systems is the asymptotic method of homogenization of differential equations with rapidly oscillating coefficients. The method has been given a strict mathematical justification and yields an asymptotically correct solutions when used in its domain of applicability. It is by application of this method that the author has discussed the elastic, heat conduction and thermoelastic properties of the composite materials and composite or structurally nonhomogeneous thin-walled elements of constructions.;The book is largely based on the author's original work carried out over the past decade, and it contains also the relevant results provided by the Russian researchers.
