Modelling Stochastic Fibrous Materials with Mathematica®

Bill Sampson is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Materials at the University of Manchester, with more than 15 years experience modeling the structure and performance of stochastic fibrous materials. His interest in these materials developed at UMIST and the University of Toronto where he first used the computer mathematics software Mathematica to develop theories applying statistical geometry to the study of the pore size distribution in paper. Subsequent work has yielded theories describing the distributions of porosity and pore size in two- and three-dimensional networks, and the extent and configuration of fiber contacts in general classes of stochastic fibrous materials. These models have been applied to the study of the structures of non-woven textiles, electrospun polymer networks, and fibrous filters, and the influence of structure on their mechanical, optical and transport behaviors.

• Statistical Tools and Terminology.- Planar Poisson Point and Line Processes.- Poisson Fibre Processes I: Fibre Phase.- Poisson Fibre Processes II: Void Phase.- Stochastic Departures from Randomness.- Three-dimensional Networks.

From the reviews: "This book provides an overview of the structure of stochastic fibrous materials, and the use of Mathematica code to develop models describing their structure and performance. ... This well-written book is a reader-friendly and good-organised manual in the field of composite materials. It can be highly recommended to experts in mechanics of solids, engineers, and to graduate, postgraduate and doctoral students." (Igor Andrianov, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1166, 2009)