Dynamics of Smart Structures is a practical, concise and integrated text that provides an introduction to the fundamental principles of a field that has evolved over the recent years into an independent and identifiable subject area. Bringing together the concepts, techniques and systems associated with the dynamics and control of smart structures, it comprehensively reviews the differing smart materials that are employed in the development of the smart structures and covers several recent developments in the field of structural dynamics. Dynamics of Smart Structures has been developed to complement the author's new interdisciplinary programme of study at Queen Mary, University of London that includes courses on emerging and new technologies such as biomimetic robotics, smart composite structures, micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and their applications and prosthetic control systems. It includes chapters on smart materials and structures, transducers for smart structures, fundamentals of structural control, dynamics of continuous structures, dynamics of plates and plate-like structures, dynamics of piezoelectric media, mechanics of electro-actuated composite structures, dynamics of thermo-elastic media: shape memory alloys, and controller designs for flexible structures.

Written by a team of experts that has been working together for several years in the context of a research network involving international institutions, this book brings several applications related to smart material systems such as vibration and noise control, structural health monitoring, energy harvesting and shape memory alloys. Furthermore, this book also provides basic knowledge on the fundamentals of smart material systems and structures. Consequently, the present title serves as an important resource for advanced undergraduate and graduate students. In addition, it serves as a guide for engineers and scientists working with smart structures and materials both with an application and basic research perspective. Smart material systems and structures represent a new paradigm which is increasing the capabilities of engineering systems. Adaptability and versatility are some important aspects related to such systems. In brief, research on smart materials is characterized by synergistically combining different physical features, such as mechanical, electrical, chemical, and magnetic. As a result, smart material technologies have a huge potential to enhance the performance of engineering structures opening unlimited opportunities to innovation and economic benefits.

Smart (intelligent) structures have been the focus of a great deal of recent research interest. In this book, leading researchers report the state of the art and discuss new ideas, results and trends in 43 contributions, covering fundamental research issues, the role of intelligent monitoring in structural identification and damage assessment, the potential of automatic control systems in achieving a desired structural behaviour, and a number of practical issues in the analysis and design of smart structures in mechanical and civil engineering applications. Audience: A multidisciplinary reference for materials scientists and engineers in such areas as mechanical, civil, aeronautical, electrical, control, and computer engineering.

Two key words for mechanical engineering in the future are Micro and Intelligence. It is weIl known that the leadership in the intelligence technology is a marter of vital importance for the future status of industrial society, and thus national research projects for intelligent materials, structures and machines have started not only in advanced countries, but also in developing countries. Materials and structures which have self-sensing, diagnosis and actuating systems, are called intelligent or smart, and are of growing research interest in the world. In this situation, the IUT AM symposium on Dynamics 0/ Advanced Materials and Smart Structures was a timely one. Smart materials and structures are those equipped with sensors and actuators to achieve their designed performance in achanging environment. They have complex structural properties and mechanical responses. Many engineering problems, such as interface and edge phenomena, mechanical and electro-magnetic interaction/coupling and sensing, actuating and control techniques, arise in the development ofintelligent structures. Due to the multi-disciplinary nature ofthese problems, all ofthe classical sciences and technologies, such as applied mathematics, material science, solid and fluid mechanics, control techniques and others must be assembled and used to solve them. IUTAM weIl understands the importance ofthis emerging technology. An IUTAM symposium on Smart Structures and Structronic Systems (Chaired by U.

This book focuses on smart materials and structures, which are also referred to as intelligent, adaptive, active, sensory, and metamorphic. The ultimate goal is to develop biologically inspired multifunctional materials with the capability to adapt their structural characteristics, monitor their health condition, perform self-diagnosis and self-repair, morph their shape, and undergo significant controlled motion.