An annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, patents, and other sources followed by a 3-5 sentence blurb that highlights, but is not limited to, the important information from that source and why it's relevant to your project. In engineering, annotations often serve to summarize the methods, results, and relevance of sources, particularly as they inform design, analysis, or experimentation.
Citation: required style, e.g. IEEE, APA.
Summary: What is the purpose of this work? What was studied?
Methodology / Technical Approach: experimental design; computational model; instrumentation; materials; simulations.
Results / Findings: What did they discover? Key data, performance metrics, tolerances, errors.
Evaluation: Strengths & weaknesses (scope, assumptions, validity, reliability).
Relevance to your own project: how this informs your design, approach, or research question.
Smith, J., Lee, A., & Patel, R. (2019). “Evaluation of Thermal Stress in Composite Laminates Under Cyclic Loading,” IEEE Transactions on Composite Materials, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 234–245.
This paper investigates thermal fatigue in carbon‐fiber composite laminates subjected to cyclic temperature loading between –40°C and +80°C. Using finite element analysis (FEA), the authors modelled microcrack initiation and growth by incorporating thermal expansion coefficients and material anisotropy. Their results show that thermal mismatch between fiber and matrix leads to microcracks at ply interfaces after ~1e5 cycles, with crack propagation correlated to fiber orientation. Strengths include a detailed sensitivity analysis and validation with experimental thermomechanical fatigue tests. Limitations include assumed uniform temperature gradients and neglect of environmental moisture effects. This study is directly relevant to my project on composite panels for aerospace applications, especially in selecting laminate layups to mitigate thermal fatigue.
Nguyen, D., & Chang, S. (2021). Design and testing of piezoelectric energy harvesters for bridge monitoring. Journal of Structural Health Monitoring, 15(2), 89-102.
This article describes the design, fabrication, and lab testing of piezoelectric cantilever beams intended for vibration‐based energy harvesting in bridge structures. Experimental setup includes ambient vibration simulation, load frequency variation, and long‐term durability testing (50,000 cycles). Key findings show peak power output of 0.5 mW under 2.5 Hz excitation, with degradation of ~10% after 30,000 cycles. Well-documented instrumentation and statistical treatment of data are strengths; however, field testing is missing, and the small scale of prototypes may not translate to full bridge applications. This will inform my design of energy harvesters for a pedestrian bridge prototype, particularly in choosing beam geometry and materials.
