On the control of shape memory alloy fiber-reinforced composites.

摘要

This work focuses on the modeling and control of smart composites, where smart composites can be loosely defined as composites with one or more constituent materials possessing inherent sensing and/or actuation abilities. Interactions between a smart material and a surrounding matrix can vary in some very complicated fashion depending upon phase distribution and loading conditions. Thus, controlling a smart material embedded within a composite presents a serious problem because of both the continuous nature of the system's states and because many of the states themselves may be unobservable. By providing estimates for the effective behavior of the composite as a whole, homogenization techniques forge the critical link between understanding smart materials as individual actuators and smart materials as components in composites. In turn, the advantages provided by homogenization are used within the context of an inverse problem to resolve issues related to observability and controllability of a smart composite.