This book presents an overview over smart structures - its concepts, its active involvement in the vibration control, their applications and the extensive research work done.

The research effort reported here summarizes the issues and discoveries of a three year effort to examine the modeling and control of intelligent structures for aerospace applications. Intelligent structures or smart structures or more appropriately, active structures are defined here in a narrow sense as structures with highly integrated sensors and actuators (piezoceramic elements in this case). The major control thrust is vibration suppression. The issues of interest are (a) is the complexity of a smart structure control system worth it, (b) how detailed must modeling be to produce effective results, and (c) does the choice of a control law make a significant difference on the response. The results show clearly that improved models and complex control strategies form the most effective combination. The results show three experimental examples which clearly indicate the usefulness and advantages of smart structures over conventional vibration suppression methodologies. In particular, active structures improve overall efficiency in cases involving both flexible and rigid body control. In addition, some tangent results on nonlinear control, control in the presence of uncertainties and control of thermoelastic systems are presented. Smart intelligent structure, Slewing, solar arrays, Antenna, Structural control, Nonlinear controller, Thermoelastic response, Critical speed control.

This report summarizes seven major results. They are: (1) The modeling and experimental verification of closed loop slewing control of flexible structures which has resulted in a substantial improvement in pointing time. (2) The effects of slewing active structures (smart structures) have been modeled, experimentally verified and shown to result in an additional improvement in performance. (3) The nature of control structure interaction has been modeled and experimentally verified for vibration suppression in trusses and for frames using on-board electromagnetic actuators. (4) A Timoshenko model of layered piezoelectric devices has been developed. (5) A significant new model correction method has been developed for adjusting mathematical models based on experimentally obtained data. (6) A robust system identification has been developed and (7) a dynamic analysis and animation of flexible structures has been developed.

Adaptronics is the term encompassing technical fields that have become known internationally under the names "smart materials", "intelligent structures", and "smart structures". Adaptronics contributes to the optimisation of systems and products. It bridges the gap between material and system or product, and incorporates the search for multi-functional materials and elements and their integration in systems or structures. The authors of this book have taken on the task of displaying the current state of the art in this fascinating field. The system components, actuators, sensors and controllers, technical fundamentals, materials, design rules and practical solutions are all described. Selected sample applications are also presented and current development trends are demonstrated.

Synthesizing knowledge acquired as a result of significant research and development over recent years, Smart Structures clearly illustrates why these structures are of such intense current interest. Gaudenzi offers valuable insight into both how they behave and how and at what cost they could be designed and produced for real life applications in cutting edge fields such as vibration control, shape morphing, structural health monitoring and energy transduction. Smart Structures offers a basic and fundamental description of smart structures from the physical, mathematical and engineering viewpoint. It explains the basic physics relating to the behaviour of active materials, gives the mathematical background behind the phenomena, and provides tools for numerical simulation. It also offers an insight into considerations related to the manufacturing, assembly and integration of smart structures. Smart Structures is divided into 5 sections: in the first part a definition of smart structures is proposed, the motivation for developing a smart structure presented and the basic physics of active materials such aspiezoelectrics, electrostrictives, magnetostrictives and shape memory alloys briefly recalled. A second part is devoted to the mathematical modelling of piezoelectric bodies. The third part discusses actuation and sensing mechanisms based on which the active part of a smart structure will produce “results” on the passive one. The fourth part deals with active composites at the micromechanical and macromechanical level, and the fifth part is devoted to applications of smart structures with examples taken from the aerospace field. This introduction to smart structures will be useful both for structural and mechanical designers, and for students and researchers at graduate level or beyond. The diverse industries involved in this rapidly evolving field include aerospace, automotive and bioengineering.

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.

Introductory text on the analysis and design of smart devices and structures.