Chapter 1
Introduction
Abstract The chapter first discusses the application background of smart structures
and the definition of smart structures. Later, the history of smart structures, including
various programs, is introduced. Finally, the objectives of the report and the outlines
are addressed.
1.1 Background
Due to light-weight design, thin-walled structures made of isotropic materials or laminated by orthotropic materials are applied in many fields of technology, e.g. aeronautical [1, 2] and aerospace [3–5], civil and automotive engineering. Although
thin-walled structures possess many beneficial properties, e.g. reduction of weight,
less raw material, etc., they tend to be instable and sensitive to vibrations. To promote
the structural performance with remaining light weight, thin-walled structures integrated with smart materials i.e. piezoelectrics, electrostrictives, magnetostrictives
and shape memory alloys (SMA), are called smart structures. Smart structures have
excellent performance on vibration control [2, 3], shape control [4, 5], noise and
acoustic control [6, 7], energy harvesting [8–13] and health monitoring [1, 14, 15],
among many others.
Smart structures in this report refer to those integrated with smart materials acting
as sensors and actuators that can sense the changes of environment and measure the
system states itself, based on which a control action can be implemented to make the
structures perform in a desired way. The field of smart structures is a newly proposed
concept and the studies are still on the way to the expected smart structures. Therefore, the definition of smart structures are not unique. In 1990s, a general framework
of the definition of intelligent structures was proposed by Wada et al. [16]. They
divided the development of smart structures into four levels. The first level systems
include sensory structures and adaptive structures. The sensory structures “which
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
S.-Q. Zhang, Nonlinear Analysis of Thin-Walled Smart Structures, Springer Tracts
in Mechanical Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9857-9_1
1
Introduction
Abstract The chapter first discusses the application background of smart structures
and the definition of smart structures. Later, the history of smart structures, including
various programs, is introduced. Finally, the objectives of the report and the outlines
are addressed.
1.1 Background
Due to light-weight design, thin-walled structures made of isotropic materials or laminated by orthotropic materials are applied in many fields of technology, e.g. aeronautical [1, 2] and aerospace [3–5], civil and automotive engineering. Although
thin-walled structures possess many beneficial properties, e.g. reduction of weight,
less raw material, etc., they tend to be instable and sensitive to vibrations. To promote
the structural performance with remaining light weight, thin-walled structures integrated with smart materials i.e. piezoelectrics, electrostrictives, magnetostrictives
and shape memory alloys (SMA), are called smart structures. Smart structures have
excellent performance on vibration control [2, 3], shape control [4, 5], noise and
acoustic control [6, 7], energy harvesting [8–13] and health monitoring [1, 14, 15],
among many others.
Smart structures in this report refer to those integrated with smart materials acting
as sensors and actuators that can sense the changes of environment and measure the
system states itself, based on which a control action can be implemented to make the
structures perform in a desired way. The field of smart structures is a newly proposed
concept and the studies are still on the way to the expected smart structures. Therefore, the definition of smart structures are not unique. In 1990s, a general framework
of the definition of intelligent structures was proposed by Wada et al. [16]. They
divided the development of smart structures into four levels. The first level systems
include sensory structures and adaptive structures. The sensory structures “which
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
S.-Q. Zhang, Nonlinear Analysis of Thin-Walled Smart Structures, Springer Tracts
in Mechanical Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9857-9_1
1