Technical Analysis of Smart Material Structures and their Applications in Civil Engineering
Due to the continuous development in the field of innovative materials, the smart material and structures can be used as a new tool in architectural industry. A conventional architectural structure is designed to function under pre-assumed forces and loads (pressure) and thus it can’t develop itself an ability to control unexpected forces and loads. The designs using smart materials are inspired with nature to mimic human i.e. a material with capability of sensing and responding with the change in environment .The aim of research in the field of smart material structures is to make a system to mimic living organism with actuators and sensors. These materials have numerous applications in the field of civil engineering e.g. SMA (shape memory alloys) with super elastic properties (inspired with the concept of elasticity),can provide a control over the shape of the structure with changing crystalline structure via a change in temperature.