ACTUATORS AND SMART STRUCTURES

Abstract

The subject of smart structures and induced-strain actuators has attracted considerable attention in recent years. Smart structures offer the opportunity to create engineered material systems that are empowered with sensing, actuation, and artificial intelligence features. The induced-strain active materials actuators are the enabling technology that makes adaptive vibration control of smart structures realizable in an optimal way. Some generic concepts about smart structures and inducedstrain active materials actuators will be given first. Then, details will be presented about piezoelectric, electrostrictive, magnetostrictive, and shape memory alloy materials that are used in the construction of induce-strain actuators. Guidelines for the effective design and construction of induced-strain actuation solutions will be provided. Details about sensory, actuatory, and adaptive smart structures will be provided, together with some real-life application examples. Conclusions and directions for further work are given last.