R12: Integration of Smart and Modern Materials

What is a Smart Materials Materials that have one or more properties that can be significantly changed in a controlled fashion by external stimuli. They have different special properties that make them suited to particular uses. Modern products increasingly use smart and modern materials. Some Types of Smart Material Piezoelectric - Applying a mechanical stress to these materials generates an electric current. Piezoelectric microphones transform changes in pressure caused by sound waves into an electrical signal. Shape memory - After deformation these materials can remember their original shape and return to it when heated. Applications include shape memory stents - tubes threaded into arteries that expand on heating to body temperature to allow increased blood flow. Thermochromic - These materials change colour in response to changes in temperature. They have been used in bath plugs that change colour when the water is too hot. Photochromic - These materials change colour in response to changes in light conditions. Uses include security inks and dolls that tan in the sun. Magnetorheological - These fluids become solid when placed in a magnetic field. They can be used to construct dampers that suppress vibrations. These can be fitted to buildings and bridges to suppress the damaging effects of, for example, high winds or earthquakes.
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/post/postpn299.pdf

What is a Modern Material? Modern materials are developed through the invention of new or improved processes, for example, as a result of 'man' made materials/ingredients or human intervention, in other words not naturally occurring changes. They are altered to perform a particular function. How do we use them? Building Medicine Leisure Products Defence Packaging The Lightest Material in the World Aerogel 99.8% air, 0.2% Solid (glass silica). Used by NASA to collect space dust. Examples of Large Smart Material Structures Angle of the North (Antony Gormley) Weathering Steel which rusts red but wont crack. Guggenheim, Bilbao (Frank Gehry) Titanium sheathing which is corrosion resistant in the salty Atlantic air. Eden Project (Nicholas Grimshaw) ETFE (thermosetting plastic) which is non stick so when ever it rains or I windy it cleans itself!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/a-modern-materials-library/11035.html