Adaptive and active materials: Selected papers from the ASME 2009 Conference on Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures and Intelligent Systems (SMASIS 09) (Oxnard, CA, USA, 21–23 September 2009)

Abstract

The second annual meeting of the AMSE/AIAA Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures, and Intelligent Systems Conference (SMASIS) took place at the beautiful Mandalay Bay resort on the coast of southern California with a focus on the theme of 'Future horizons for multifunctional materials and systems'. This was reflected in keynote talks by Professor James Hubbard of UMD, 'The future of aerospace'; Professor Gregory Carman of UCLA, 'The future of active materials in medical devices'; and Dr Michael Tryson of Danfoss PolyPower A/S, 'Dielectric ElectroActive Polymers (DEAP)—viable members of the smart material family'.The SMASIS conference was divided into six symposia each of which include basic research, applied technological design and development, and industrial and governmental integrated system and application demonstrations. The six symposia were: SYMP 1 Multifunctional Materials SYMP 2 Active Materials, Mechanics and Behavior SYMP 3 Enabling Technologies and Integrated System Design SYMP 4 Structural Health Monitoring/NDE SYMP 5 Nonlinear Dynamics and Passive/Adaptive Controls SYMP 6 Bio-inspired Smart Materials and Structures Authors of papers in the materials areas (symposia 1, 2, and 6) were invited to write a full journal article on their presentation topic for publication in this special issue of Smart Materials and Structures. This set of papers demonstrates the exceptional quality and originality of the conference presentations. We are appreciative of their efforts to produce this collection of highly relevant articles on smart materials.