A Survey of Standards for Product Lifecycle Management of Structural Composites

Composite materials are widely used in the aerospace, automotive, and sports industries. Designing a composite product requires highly concurrent processes including manufacturing and assembly considerations. This paper examines existing classification schemes for composite materials based on reinforcement and matrix type. Next we review various research, industry, and standards organization efforts to develop computer representation models of composite materials. We then present a survey of specification and verification standards for composite materials, highlighting their gaps and overlaps. Key findings of our analysis are that standard test methods are lacking for particle-reinforced composite materials, and that existing bonding inspection methods and computer-aided design presentation methods for layered composite materials need improvement.