Composite-metal hybrids

Wood, the most common composite, required builders to design structures based on the tensile and compressive properties of unidirectional cellulosic fibers. Because composites are usually layered structures, with the layers only being held together by resin, their out-of-plane tensile properties are limited by the interlaminar shear properties of the resin. [...] bonded hybrid structures are beginning to appear, as finite element analysis (FEA) techniques boost confidence levels.