Overview of the Japanese Smart Materials Demonstrator Program and Structures System Project

The Japanese Smart Materials and Structures System Project started in 1998 as a five-year program funded by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and supported by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). This project was primarily conducted by the Academic Institutions Centered Program, a collaborative research and development project among universities, industries, and national laboratories. Initially, this project consisted of four research groups: structural health monitoring, smart manufacturing, active/adaptive structures, and actuator material/devices. Two years later, two demonstrator programs were added in order to integrate the developed sensor and actuator elements into the smart structure system and to verify the research and development results of the four research groups. The application target of these demonstrators was the airplane, and two demonstrators whose shapes simulated the fuselage of a small commercial airplane (for example, Boeing B737) were established. The first demonstrator integrated the following six innovative techniques: (1) impact monitoring using embedded, small diameter optical fiber sensors newly developed in this program, (2) impact monitoring using integrated acoustic emission (AE) systems, (3) whole-field strain mapping using the BOTDR/FBG integrated system, (4) damage suppression using embedded shape memory alloy (SMA) films, (5) maximum and cyclic strain sensing using smart composite patches, and (6) smart manufacturing using the integrated sensing system. The second demonstrator was for suppressing vibration and acoustic noise generated in a composite cylindrical structure. In this program, high-performance PZT actuators/sensors (developed in this project) were also installed. All tests and evaluations were completed. This paper outlines the demonstrator programs.