Autonomous Composite Structures

Abstract

The vision behind so-called autonomous composite structures is the creation of a new class of composite lightweight structures with significantly enhanced capabilities with respect to traditional design. This includes health monitoring features to increase the maintainability and to enlarge the achievable design layouts as well as the incorporation of noise reduction and vibration control capabilities directly into the structure. The overall quantity to be minimized is the weight per surface ratio, which can only be put below a certain application dependent threshold value by active methods. Therefore three different key technologies have to be merged into one autonomous system: energy harvesting, smart structures fiber composites. This section gives an overview about the requirements for current and future research to make this vision real and presents examples which demonstrate that some key aspects of autonomous composite structures are already realizable with “state of the art” techniques