Classify composites with the help of a diagram and an example of each class.

                             COMPOSITES
          ______________________|______________________
         |                      |                      |
 Particle-reinforced     Fibre-reinforced           Structural
     ____|____              ____|_______             ____|_____
    |         |            |            |           |          |
 Large-   Dispersion-  Continuous  Discontinuous  Laminar   Sandwich
 particle strengthened  (aligned)   (short)                  panels
                                    ___|___
                                   |       |
                                Aligned  Randomly oriented

• Particle-reinforced: the dispersed phase is particles of roughly equal size in all directions.
  • Large-particle: concrete (gravel and sand in cement), carbon black in tyre rubber, cermets (WC in Co).
  • Dispersion-strengthened: very fine particles (10–100 nm) block dislocations, e.g. thoria-dispersed Ni (TD nickel), Al with Al₂O₃ (SAP).
• Fibre-reinforced: fibres in a matrix.
  • Continuous aligned: CFRP, GFRP filament-wound pipes.
  • Discontinuous (short) fibres, aligned or random: chopped-glass-fibre sheet moulding compound.
• Structural:
  • Laminar: plywood, laminated glass.
  • Sandwich panels: aluminium honeycomb core between Al or FRP face sheets in aircraft floors.

Composites are also classified by matrix: polymer-matrix (PMC, e.g. GFRP), metal-matrix (MMC, e.g. SiC/Al) and ceramic-matrix (CMC, e.g. SiC/SiC).