Mechanics of Composite Materials 2nd Edition by Robert M. Jones

This is not like any other mechanics of materials book you’ve ever read! Unless you’ve read ones about composite materials, of course. The average manufacturing or mechanical engineer, or engineering student, will not delve deeply into composite materials.

This is where Jones and his book come along. The book starts off by explaining what composites are, how they work, what they’re used for, and generally makes a very good case for why you would want to know more about and how to use composite materials as an engineer.

The next chapter scares away those of you who are not fans of linear algebra or matrices in general. While the math for composites feels so far out of left field, Jones explains how it’s the same math we use daily by breaking it down step by step.

Honestly, it takes a moment to follow along but once you have the Eureka! moment you appreciate the author’s breakdown a great deal more — be patient. But understand this book was written for graduate students and does delve into minor details.

This book will introduce you to a world of materials that are not isotropic, homogenous, or elastic, which is a different world from traditional materials. The book breaks its analysis down discussing the composite materials at both a macroscopic and microscopic level.

The book also discusses the behavior of composite materials under bending, buckling, and vibration. You may feel like the textbook is lacking in equations for this section. But understand that is because the phenomena for composite materials are so very different from engineering materials and thus, our knowledge is limited.

The design section of the book is going to be the bread and butter when it comes to application. The appendices in the back are very useful for understanding the matrix math and having values for stresses and strains of composite materials, which, believe me, are hard to come by! The book is direct and clear.