Actuators and Self-Maintenance Approaches

Intelligent or smart materials are new generation materials surpassing conventional structural and functional materials in their possession of adaptive capabilities to meet external stimuli, such as loads or environment, with inherent intelligence. Rogers (1988), Rogers et al. (1988) defines smart materials as materials possessing the ability to change their physical properties in a specific manner in response to a specific stimulus input. The stimuli could be pressure, temperature, electric and magnetic fields, chemicals, hydrostatic pressure, or nuclear radiation. The associated changeable physical properties include shape, stiffness, viscosity, and damping.