Smart Composites

Smart Composites: Mechanics and Design addresses the current progress in the mechanics and design of smart composites and multifunctional structures. Divided into three parts, it covers characterization of properties, analyses, and design of various advanced composite material systems with an emphasis on the coupled mechanical and non-mechanical behaviors.

Part one includes analyses of smart materials related to electrically conductive, magnetostrictive nanocomposites and design of active fiber composites. These discussions include several techniques and challenges in manufacturing smart composites and characterizing coupled properties, as well as the analyses of composite structures at various length and time scales undergoing coupled mechanical and non-mechanical stimuli considering elastic, viscoelastic (and/or viscoplastic), fatigue, and damage behaviors.

Part two is dedicated to a higher-scale analysis of smart structures with topics such as piezoelectrically actuated bistable composites, wing morphing design using macrofiber composites, and multifunctional layered composite beams. The analytical expressions for characterization of the smart structures are presented with an attention to practical application.

Finally, part three presents recent advances regarding sensing and structural health monitoring with a focus on how the sensing abilities can be integrated within the material and provide continuous sensing, recognizing that multifunctional materials can be designed to both improve and enhance the health-monitoring capabilities and also enable effective nondestructive evaluation.

is an essential text for those interested in materials that not only possess the classical properties of stiffness and strength, but also act as actuators under a variety of external stimuli, provide passive and active response to enable structural health monitoring, facilitate advanced nondestructive testing strategies, and enable shape-changing and morphing structures.

Rani Elhajjar is currently a faculty member at the Department of Civil Engineering and Mechanics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA. He holds a Ph.D from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA and has researched the development of analytical and experimental techniques for fracture in pultruded composite materials, test methods for through thickness fracture testing in composites, and nondestructive experimental techniques using thermoelastic stress analysis, digital image correlation, and acoustic emission. Prior to this appointment, he was structural analyst on the 787 Dreamliner program at Boeing, Everett, Washington, USA, where he was responsible for several test programs including the effects of defects on the fuselage structure.

is associate professor at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California-Davis, USA. She holds a Ph.D in aerospace engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA (Georgia Tech). A recipient of a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation, she has worked in the space research industry for an Italian microgravity-focused research center, subcontractor of NASA, and the European Space Agency; as well as served as instructor in civil and environmental engineering at Georgia Tech, and as assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA.

is associate professor and Gulf Oil/Thomas A. Dietz career development professor II at Texas A&M University, College Station, USA. She holds a Ph.D from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA. An educator and researcher of micromechanics and viscoelastic response of composites, she has been published in over 60 journals and 25 conference proceedings. Her work has been recognized at the university level, through a TEES Select Young Faculty Award, as well as nationally through the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, US Air Force Young Investigator Program, and Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.