Green Composites for Industrial Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Composite materials have been around for a number of decades now, and a considerable body of knowledge has been created and exploited around its massive advantages. However, the industrial application of composites at large has been mostly limited to cutting-edge sectors like aviation and top end sports goods. The use of composites in other industries has been picking up slowly for multiple reasons of which some can be pointed out briefly:

• Natural inertia in modifying long-established design and manufacturing processes
• Lack of understanding of industrialization and mass production of composites
• Concerns about reliability and durability
• Lack of understanding of composites’ maintenance and repair

In recent years, however, the body of knowledge has increased significantly and spread its attention considerably, to encompass topics that were not major concerns, most notably:

• Environmental sustainability
• Life-cycle engineering and life-cycle assessment
• Incorporation of natural materials in the processing of composites
• Weight reduction as a major driver of energy saving

This Special Issue aims to look at composites as a way of greening industrial applications, not only by incorporating natural materials but also by redefining the way in which they are designed, used, disposed of, or potentially reused. The analysis of these very broad and ill-defined problems can no longer focus on specific issues: it has to tackle a web of influences ranging from design to production, from supply chain to end-of-life, from consumer preference to market trends, from public awareness to public policy, etc.

Manuscripts submitted to this Special Issue should tackle the specific and the broad, the technical and the social, the environmental and the financial sustainability. Especially sought manuscripts will bridge these fields to produce a web of knowledge that may inform the scientific and the industrial community on ways to move forward and exploit the advantages of composite materials while mitigating their drawbacks.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Arlindo Silva
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Composites Science is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• design methods and techniques
• product design and development
• materials selection methodologies
• technology evaluation and selection
• renewable composites
• cost modeling
• management of uncertainty in design
• life-cycle engineering
• life-cycle assessment