Preface

Abstract

Second US Army Research Office Workshop on Smart Structures This special issue is derived from the research presented at the Second US Army Research Office Sponsored Workshop on Smart Structures, hosted by the Department of Aerospace Engineering of the University of Maryland at College Park. The results of forty-two research projects were presented at the workshop in sessions including: Helicopter Applications, Analysis of Smart Structures, Structural Health Monitoring, Shape Memory Alloys, Nonlinear Issues, Active Vibration Control, Active/Passive Damping, Piezo-Actuation, Novel Actuators, and Sensors. The workshop was attended by a diverse group of over 130 attendees from academia, industry, and government. Industrial representatives came from companies such as McDonnell-Douglas Helicopter, United Technologies Research Center, Sikorsky Aircraft, Bell Helicopter, Boeing Helicopters, Northrup Grumman, and Hughes. Government representatives came from the Pentagon, US Army, US Navy, US Air Force, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, as well as researchers from several government laboratories. In fact, nearly one third of all attendees came from outside academia, illustrating the importance and relevance of the smart structures research presented at the workshop. A highlight of the workshop was an overview of smart structures and materials technology presented by Dr Richard Chait, as seen from the Pentagon perspective, during the Potomac River dinner cruise aboard the Spirit of Washington. Two awards were given for outstanding presentations. The first was the `Outstanding Presentation by a Young Investigator' presented to Mr Peter Chen (Rotorcraft Fellow, University of Maryland) for his presentation entitled `Smart rotor with induced strain piezo-actuation of blade twist'. The second was the `Outstanding Presentation by an Established Investigator' presented to Professor Vijay Varadan (Pennsylvania State University) for his presentation entitled `Smart Materials with Interdigital Electrodes, Antennae and MEMS for Helicopter Structures'. In order to enhance the quality of the workshop, and to encourage questions, the `Award for Best Questions' was announced at the beginning of the Workshop. Dr Victor Giurgiutiu (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) was given this award by unanimous decision of the judges, and by universal acclaim of the attendees, for his numerous and insightful questions on energy density and other issues. The judging panel for these awards were all industry and government representatives, and we thank them for their efforts in selecting the awardees. Of the forty-two papers presented at the workshop, fourteen are included in this special issue. Each paper included in this special issue was edited with the same quality standards as for any regular issue paper, including three reviews and revision as required. Special thanks are due to the US Army Research Office for providing the funding to make this workshop possible, to Professor Inderjit Chopra (Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Maryland) for co-chairing the workshop, and to all of the workshop participants for making this workshop an energetic and memorable one. Special thanks are due Ms Becky Sarni (Executive Administrative Assistant, Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Maryland) for exploiting all of her organizational skills to make this workshop operate as smoothly as it did. A final but important thanks to all of the University of Maryland graduate students who volunteered numerous hours to make this workshop a success. Gary Anderson Engineering Science Division Army Research Office, PO Box 12211 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2211, USA anderson@aro-emh1.army.mil Norman M Wereley Assistant Professor Department of Aerospace Engineering University of Maryland 3180 Engineering Classroom Building College Park, MD 20742, USA wereley@eng.umd.edu