A Systematic Literature Network Analysis: Development of Manufacturing, Enhancement and Sustainability of Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites (1998–2020) and Future Research Agenda

The existing literature review articles in composite materials research field target a particular resin material which cannot show the full picture of the research area. The traditional literature reviews are vulnerable to subjective opinion on selecting, reviewing and analyzing the related articles. In this systematic literature review, keywords were input into Web of Science (WOS) search engine to collect relevant articles from the database. This method can more comprehensively review articles that are related to fiber-reinforced polymer composites. Articles published from 1970 to 2020 were collected from the WOS database. Keywords input were relevant to manufacturing, enhancement and sustainability of fiber-reinforced polymer composites and their variants. 151 articles were selected based on keyword filtering, nature of articles and content, and further examined with citation network analysis. Seven principal clusters were formed and evaluated. Publication year, geographical locations, research areas and journal of the selected articles were presented statistically. Two major clusters, “fabrication and molding methods of composites” and “properties and performance of multiscale composites”, were identified and a few emerging clusters were found to establish their networks including topics about impact response, natural fiber, rapid curing, nanofiller, and hydrothermal aging. Future research and more results are needed in those emerging clusters.