• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.266-284
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• 2010

Piezoelectric materials have become the most attractive functional materials for sensors and actuators in smart structures because they can directly convert mechanical energy to electrical energy and vise versa. They have excellent electromechanical coupling characteristics and excellent frequency response. In this article, the research activities and achievements on the applications of piezoelectric materials in smart structures in China, including vibration control, noise control, energy harvesting, structural health monitoring, and hysteresis control, are introduced. Special attention is given to the introduction of semi-active vibration suppression based on a synchronized switching technique and piezoelectric fibers with metal cores for health monitoring. Such mechanisms are relatively new and possess great potential for future applications in aerospace engineering.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.4 no.5
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• pp.517-530
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• 2008

This paper deals with civil infrastructures in general, sensor and smart structure technology, and smart steel structures in particular. Smart structures technology, an integrated engineering field comprising sensor technology, structural control, smart materials and structural health monitoring, could dramatically transform and revolutionize the design, construction and maintenance of civil engineering structures. The central core of this technology is sensor and sensor networks that provide the essential data input in real time for condition assessment and decision making. Sensors and robust monitoring algorithms that can reliably detect the occurrence, location, and severity of damages such as crack and corrosion in steel structures will lead to increased levels of safety for civil infrastructure, and may significantly cut maintenance or repair cost through early detection. The emphasis of this paper is on sensor technology with a potential use in steel structures.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.261-282
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• 2013

Structural health monitoring (SHM) is an application area of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) which usually needs high data communication rate to transfer a large amount of monitoring data. Traditional sink node can only process data from one communication channel at the same time because of the single radio chip structure. The sink node constitutes a bottleneck for constructing a high data rate SHM application giving rise to a long data transfer time. Multi-channel communication has been proved to be an efficient method to improve the data throughput by enabling parallel transmissions among different frequency channels. This paper proposes an 8-radio integrated sink node design method based on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and the time synchronization mechanism for the multi-channel network based on the proposed sink node. Three experiments have been performed to evaluate the data transfer ability of the developed multi-radio sink node and the performance of the time synchronization mechanism. A high data throughput of 1020Kbps of the developed sink node has been proved by experiments using IEEE.805.15.4.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.607-620
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• 2018

Vibration analysis of deep curved FG nano-beam has been carried out based on modified couple stress theory. Material properties of curved Timoshenko beam are assumed to be functionally graded in radial direction. Governing equations of motion and related boundary conditions have been obtained via Hamilton's principle. In a parametric study, influence of length scale parameter, aspect ratio, gradient index, opening angle, mode number and interactive influences of these parameters on natural frequency of the beam, have been investigated. It was found that, considering geometrical deepness term leads to an increase in sensitivity of natural frequency about variation of aforementioned parameters.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2006.04a
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• pp.82-88
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• 2006

In People usually think that smart materials and smart structures have not been developed until recent years. But those kinds of sensors have already been used for sensing damage in a variety of materials and structures. Two typical examples are piezoelectric materials (e.g., PZT) and electric strain gauges. Load cell is an example that utilizes the piezoelectric property to measure the change in physical quantities occurred by applied loads, while strain gauges are used to measure the deformation of compressive and tension members. The feasibility of using smart materials is realized for a monitoring technology when those sensors are used to monitor damages at inside or outsider of the structures. In this study, a fundamental study on the development of self diagnostic smart concrete using PZT, and unsaturated polyester electric resistance sensor.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.581-592
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• 2020

Magneto-rheological fluids and magneto-strictive materials are of the well-known smart materials which are used to control and reduce the vibrations of the structures. Vibration analysis of a smart annular three-layered plate is provided in this work. MR fluids are used as the core's material type and the face sheets are made from MS materials and is assumed they are fully bonded to each other. The structure is rested on visco-Pasternak foundation and also is subjected to a transverse magnetic field. The governing motion equations are derived based on CPT and employing Hamilton's principle and are solved via GDQ as a numerical method for various boundary conditions. Effect of different parameters on the results are considered and discussed in detail. One of the salient features of this work is the consideration of MR fluids as the core, MS materials as the faces, and all of them under magnetic field. The outcomes of this study may be led to design and create smart structures such as sensors, actuators and also dampers.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.339-350
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• 2017

In this paper, various nonlocal higher-order shear deformation beam theories that consider the size dependent effects in Functionally Graded Material (FGM) beam are examined. The presented theories fulfill the zero traction boundary conditions on the top and bottom surface of the beam and a shear correction factor is not required. Hamilton's principle is used to derive equation of motion as well as related boundary condition. The Navier solution is applied to solve the simply supported boundary conditions and exact formulas are proposed for the bending and static buckling. A parametric study is also included to investigate the effect of gradient index, length scale parameter and length-to-thickness ratio (aspect ratio) on the bending and the static buckling characteristics of FG nanobeams.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.517-539
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• 2014

The combined use of smart materials, complementing each others' characteristics and resulting in devices with optimised features, is providing new solutions in many industries. The use of ingenious combinations of smart materials has led to improvements in actuation speed and force, signal-to-noise ratio, sensor precision and unique capabilities such as self-sensing self-healing systems and energy autonomy. This may all give rise to a revival for numerous families of smart materials, for which application proposals had already reached a stationary situation. It may also provide the boost needed for the definitive industrial success of many others. This study focuses on reviewing the proposals, preliminary studies and success cases related to combining smart materials to obtain multifunctional, improved systems. It also examines the most outstanding applications and fields for the combined use of these smart materials. We will also discuss related study areas which warrant further research for the development of novel approaches for demanding applications.

• Ceramist
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.27-37
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• 2020

Recently, 4D printing technology has received considerable attention in various industries and research fields including soft robotics, tissue engineering, electronics. In 4D printing process, 3D printed object transforms itself into programmed structure by the input of external energy. Thus, this process requires not only smart materials, capable of changing their properties or features in response to external stimuli such as electricity, temperature, light, etc., but also smart structures, multi-material 3D printing, simulation and so on. In this review, the concept, technical elements and potential of 4d printing are presented.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.113-122
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• 2018

In this article, an exact analytical solution for mechanical buckling analysis of magnetoelectroelastic plate resting on pasternak foundation is investigated based on the third-order shear deformation plate theory. The in-plane electric and magnetic fields can be ignored for plates. According to Maxwell equation and magnetoelectric boundary condition, the variation of electric and magnetic potentials along the thickness direction of the plate is determined. The von Karman model is exploited to capture the effect of nonlinearity. Navier's approach has been used to solve the governing equations for all edges simply supported boundary conditions. Numerical results reveal the effects of (i) lateral load, (ii) electric load, (iii) magnetic load and (iv) higher order shear deformation theory on the critical buckling load have been investigated. These results must be the analysis of intelligent structures constructed from magnetoelectroelastic materials.