13 Feb 2026
At the International Conference on Composite Materials, Design and Engineering in IIT Delhi, it was a great privilege for me to be learning from scholars sharing their findings in the field of composite materials. More than 100 papers were presented over a period of 3 days making the conference one of the most productive ones that I have ever had the honor of attending.
Composite materials have already revolutionised the field of materials science. GFRPs are used everywhere from aerospace to circuit boards and sports equipment. Carbon fibers are being seen as promising future materials if the cost of production could be managed.
Under load composite materials differ significantly from metals. Generally they are quite strong if fibers are aligned along the direction of the load. However they are prone to failure if load is applied transverse to the fiber orientation. This means that for fiber composites careful engineering is required which makes them somewhat more demanding than metals which are usually isotropic—exhibiting the same behaviour regardless of the loading type.
Despite this, composites continue to gain popularity being light weight and corrosion free. They have occupied a sweet spot between metals and plastics. Even in plastics the principles of composite manufacturing are being applied as particle fillers are developed to enhance their theromechanical properties or to impart novel properties like enhanced conductivity and UV resistance.
Because composites are so widely used it has become important to understand their failure mechanisms. The most common ones include
1. Matrix cracking– Cracks form in the resin due to tensile or cyclic loading.
2. Fiber breakage – Fibers fracture under high tensile stress.
3. Delamination – Separation between layers (plies).
4. Fiber–matrix debonding – Loss of bonding at the interface.
5. Fatigue failure – Progressive damage under cyclic loading.
Quite a few presentations were dedicated to predicting failure in composites and analysing their behaviour in low and high velocity impacts. High velocity impact resistance in particular has application in making bullet proof vests and sure enough boron carbide composite materials were showcased for making light weight armour.
Because composites give the ability to build new hybrid materials they can be used in clever ways. One very intriguing presentation demonstrated using wound fibers on steel impregnated with epoxy to create a strong and corrosion resistant bar that can be used in concrete. The natural surface roughness on steel bars provided mechanical interlocking with epoxy preventing its delamination from steel as fiber breakage remained the most common cause of strength loss demonstrating that the composite does indeed work.
GFRPs use in sonar domes was another intriguing application in which huge 10m long structures were created to protect the sonar equipment placed at the ships hull. Rarely does one get an opportunity to see these kinds of applications. I jumped at the chance to learn about it.
Although composites can be bolted like traditional metals I think there might be some interesting new joining technique that could be developed through the use of stitching before impregnation with resin and adapting joinery techniques developed from wood. Wood after all is one of the most well studied and heavily used composite materials.
The use of nano particles to prevent microcracking in composites was emphasized. Electric field based alignment of nanoparticles could help a lot in arresting cracks though several techniques have been developed.
It was encouraging to see the use of biomaterials particularly in the field of prosthetics.
Bioinspired bouligand structures —layered arrangements where fibers in each layer are slightly rotated relative to the one below, forming a spiral pattern through the thickness -- also demonstrated a bioinspired method of making tough composite materials.
In the future I would love to see more research on engineered biocomposites. The Lignocellulose family of materials in particular can play a very important role in sustainable manufacturing. Wood has already proven itself through centuries of use. If wood-like structures can be created from non-woody biomass that would be a massive victory for sustainability.
Nevertheless the diversity of topics in the conference made for a very exciting few days.
I congratulate all the researchers for participating in this event and making it a big success. On a personal note it gave me a chance to connect with like minded people who spend days and nights tweaking material properties to extract every ounce of performance from them. I was also pleasantly surprised to see researchers from diverse backgrounds such as mechanical and civil engineering participating in this event and sharing their research. This further reinforced what I have always believed. Materials science is the basic fundamental building block of all engineering and scientific domains. At some point in time all engineers have to deal with material performance therefore it helps a lot to have basic knowledge on the subject.
I learnt a lot from this conference and look forward to attending more in the future.
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