A new designing concept to realize multifunctional structural material systems without using sophisticated functional materials was proposed and demonstrated in this paper. The concept can be explained as follow: There exist a couple of competitive structural materials which normally compete with each other because of their similar and high mechanical properties, and they tend to have another property which is different from each other or opposite among them. So if they are combined together to make a composite, the similar property, normally high mechanical property, can be maintained, and the other dissimilar property conflicts with each other, which will successfully generate a functional property without using any sophisticated functional materials. According to this concept, two examples, that is, a CFRP/Al active laminate and a Ti fiber/Al multifunctional composite were made and it was successfully demonstrated.

Date Published: 27 April 2007
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 6525, Active and Passive Smart Structures and Integrated Systems 2007, 65251U (27 April 2007); doi: 10.1117/12.715702

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6525:
Active and Passive Smart Structures and Integrated Systems 2007
Yuji Matsuzaki; Mehdi Ahmadian; Donald J. Leo, Editor(s)