Applications of Smart Materials

Applications of Smart Materials

General Aplications:

Aerospace

Mass transit

Marine

Automotive

Computers and other electronic devices

Consumer goods applications

Civil engineering

Medical equipment applications

Rotating machinery applications

Conventional bone plate used to repair jaw fracture

Examples of Medical applications

More specific applications

Sensors built into aircraft will let maintenance people know when repairs or more sophisticated inspections are required.

Smart materials are beginning to play an important role in civil engineering designs for dams, bridges, highways, and buildings.Are useful also to remove corrosion of a Navy Pier and also engineers are introducing sheets of composites materials containing sensors that will alert maintenance engineers to the need for repairs.

Other important industry that are including Smart Materials they are working in a project to develop smart car seats that can identify primary occupants and adapt to their preferences for height, leg-room, back support, and so forth.

Technology also exists to enable cars to tell owners how much air pressure tires have, when oil changes are needed, and other maintenance information. Developing solid state and smart materials technologies will bring costs down.

Another important application is using the MR fluid .The MR damper developed at the Intelligent Structures and Systems Lab uses the mixed mode configuration. The MR damper has a built-in MR valve across which the MR fluid is forced. The piston of the MR damper acts as an electromagnet with the required number of coils to produce the appropriate magnetic field. Also the MR damper has a run-through shaft to avoid an accumulator. for the design of cars.

A view of the one dimensional force feedback system

Other applications using MR fluids are:

Since MR fluids have a very high yield stress they can be used to control the transmission of torque in rotating machinery too. For example, they may be used in an automotive power train to transmit torque from the engine to the transmission and the vehicle.

Advanced Control System Design using MR dampers- MR dampers can also be used to achieve sliding mode control in vibrating systems like seat suspensions, vehicle suspensions, washing machines and prosthetic devices.

Modeling and Control of Active Spiral and Patch Antennas

A simple mass-spring-MR damper system