Multidisciplinary Breakthroughs in Short-Fiber Composites—Properties, Microstructure, Topology Optimization and Embedded Elements

Short-fiber-reinforced composite materials are increasingly being used in a wide variety of fields, including medicine, the automotive industry, and aviation. This growing demand has driven the development of new manufacturing technologies, numerical modeling and topology optimization methods, and techniques for assessing the internal structure of such products, among others. This review provides a comprehensive examination of the characteristics and mechanical properties of short-fiber-reinforced composite materials, focusing on the key aspects of their design and manufacturing processes. We analyze the consideration of anisotropy in material modeling, the methods for the non-destructive testing of material structure, and the multidisciplinary approach to product design. The review also addresses advanced design techniques, including topology optimization and bimaterial optimization for designing products with embedded lattice structures, as well as adhesion modeling. In contrast to existing reviews, this work presents an overview of multidisciplinary studies dedicated to all stages of designing and manufacturing structures from short-fiber-reinforced composites, unifying the engineering pipeline from material property and molding modeling to topology-optimized design and static analysis under operation loads.