Smart Composites ― Mechanics and Design

This textbook presents the current progress in mechanics and design of smart composites and multifunctional structures. The first part of this book discusses characterization of properties, analyses, and design of various advanced composite materials, including sandwich and laminated composite actuators, as well as several techniques and challenges in manufacturing smart composites and characterizing their coupled mechanical and non-mechanical properties. This part also includes analyses of composite structures at various length and time scales undergoing coupled mechanical and non-mechanical stimuli. Other important response characteristics in composite systems such as nonlinear elastic, viscoelastic (and/or viscoplastic), fatigue, fracture, and damage behavior are discussed.

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.

Valeria La Saponara 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.

Anastasia Muliana 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.