Hybrid Composites

Abstract

Abstract The development of smart materials has been inspired by biological structural systems and their basic characteristics of efficiency, functionality, precision, self‐repair, and durability. As is well known, few monolithic materials presently available possess these characteristics. Accordingly, smart materials are not singular materials, rather, they are hybrid composites or integrated systems of materials. Presently, no materials possessing high‐level intelligent have been developed. Only some smart hybrid composites that can receive or respond to a stimulus, including temperature, stress, strain, an electric field, a magnetic field, and other forms of stimuli have been developed and studied by materials scientists. These smart hybrid composites are developed by incorporating a variety of advanced functional materials, such as shape memory materials, piezoelectric materials, fiber‐optics, magnetostrictive materials, electrostrictive materials, magnetorheological fluids, electrorheological fluids, and some functional polymers. Smart hybrid composites provide tremendous potential for creating new paradigms for material‐structural interactions, and they demonstrate varying success in many engineering applications, such as vibration control, sound control, quiet commuter aircraft, artificial organs, artificial limbs, microelectromechanical systems among a variety of others. Shape‐memory materials (SMMs) are one of the major elements of smart hybrid composites because of their unusual properties. To date, a variety of alloys, ceramics, polymers and gels have been found to exhibit SME behavior. Both tile fundamental and engineering aspects of SMMs have been investigated extensively and some of them are presently commercial materials. Particularly, some SMMs can be easily fabricated into thin films, fibers or wires, particles and even porous bulks, enable them feasibly to be incorporated with other materials to form hybrid composites.