Course Syllabus

MECH 6334 - Smart Materials and Structures

Course Information

Course Prefix: MECH 6334

Course Title: Smart Materials and Structures (3 semester credit hours)

Term: Spring 2019

Starts: January 14, 2019

Ends: May 11, 2019

Date and Time: Tuesday & Thursday 2:30pm - 3:45pm

Class Location: SLC 2.302

Professor Contact Information

Name: Yonas Tadesse

Email: yonas.tadesse@utdallas.edu

Office: ROW 1.160H

Lab: ROW 1.181

Office Phone: 972-883-4556

Fax: 972-883-4659

http://me.utdallas.edu/people/tadesse.html

http://www.utdallas.edu/~yonas.tadesse/

Office hours: Wednesdays 2:00 to 3:00 pm

Course Pre-requisites, Co-requisites, and/or Other Restrictions

Prerequisite: MECH 6306.
MECH 6306 - Continuum Mechanics (3 semester credit hours) or MECH 6350 Advanced Solid
Mechanics or Equivalent

(The following prior knowledge or skills are required)

Deformable bodies, introductory mechanics, engineering mathematics such as Laplace

transform. Other useful backgrounds needed but not mandatory are introductory electronics,
system dynamics, and introductory vibration, Matlab or equivalent.

Course Syllabus Page 1

Course Description
Introduction to smart materials. Fundamental properties of smart materials including piezoelectric
materials, shape memory alloys or polymers, conducting polymers, dielectric elastomers, and ionic
polymer metal composites. Constitutive modeling of smart materials. Characterization techniques.
Applications as sensors, actuators and in energy harvesting.

Student Learning Objectives/Outcomes

1. Derive a transducer constitutive model of common smart material and structures.

2. Identify the physical principles that govern the behavior of piezoelectric, shape memory alloys
dielectric elastomers, conducting polymers and other active polymeric transducers.
3. Understand how smart materials and structures are fabricated.
4. Design a device or system using smart materials for actuation, sensing, vibration control or energy
harvesting.

Topics
Week 1-2: Intro
1. Course Outline and Nature of the Course.
2. Introduction to Smart Materials.
3. Review of Fundamental Electrostatics and Introduction to Piezoelectricity.
4. Introduction to Energy Transduction.

Week 3-8: Piezoelectric Materials and Modeling Equations

5. Design of Piezoelectric Stack Actuators.
6. Piezoelectric Stacks and Bimorphs – Sensing.
7. Piezoelectric Bimorphs – Actuation.
8. Piezoelectric Stacks and Bimorphs – Dynamic Response.
9. Introduction to Thermodynamic Relationships.
10. Derivation of Constitutive Models from Thermodynamic Relationships.
11. Work-Energy Relationships. Variational Mechanics – Static Systems.
12. Journal Discussion.

Week 9-13: Shape Memory Alloy

13. Introduction to Shape Memory Alloy
14. SMA based device
15. Laboratory – demo
16. Shape Memory Alloys – Materials
17. Shape Memory Alloys – Constitutive Relations
18. Shape Memory Alloys – Modeling

Week 14-16: Electroactive Polymers (EAP)

19. Intro to Active Polymers

20. Fabrication of EAPs
21. Intro to Ionic Polymers, conductive polymers, etc.
22. Introduction to dielectric elastomer
23. EAP based device

Course Syllabus Page 2

Required Textbooks and Materials

ENGINEERING ANALYSIS OF SMART MATERIAL SYSTEMS, By: Donald J. Leo, WILEY 2007
ISBN: 9780471684770

Other Reference Books

Shape memory alloys: modeling and engineering applications, Dimitris C Lagoudas(Ed), Springer Science
& Business Media 2008

Electroactive Polymer (EAP) Actuators as Artificial Muscles: Yoseph Bar-Cohen(Ed), Reality, Potential,
and Challenges, SPIE press 2004.

Suggested Course Materials

Journal papers or other supplementary materials will be given in class or referred from online
resources.

Assignments & Academic Calendar

(Topics, Reading Assignments, Due Dates, Exam Dates)

Assignments should be turned in on the due date. If you miss the due date, you will loss 10% of
the points per day unless you have a medical reason or extraordinary reason to miss due date.
Assignment will not be accepted once it is corrected and returned back to students. Midterm date
will be announced in class and the final exam will be according to registrar office schedule,
which can be found from course book.

Grading Policy
(including percentages for assignments, grade scale, etc.)
Homework …………….. 25%
Classwork……………… 10%
Class participation……… 5%
Midterm…………………20%
Project…………………...15%
Final…………………….. 25%

Course & Instructor Policies

(make-up exams, extra credit, late work, special assignments, class attendance, classroom citizenship, etc.)

Make-up exam will be given only for those who present proof (medical reason or other
conditions) that is beyond the student’s control. The instructor needs at least two weeks to
prepare equivalent exam to the one given (in case you missed exams). Make-up will be given case
by case. Attendance will be taken regularly. It is required to have at least 75% mandatory
attendance for this class.

Course Syllabus Page 3

Comet Creed
This creed was voted on by the UT Dallas student body in 2014. It is a standard that Comets choose to live
by and encourage others to do the same:

“As a Comet, I pledge honesty, integrity, and service in all that I do.”

UT Dallas Syllabus Policies and Procedures

The information contained in the following link constitutes the University’s policies and
procedures segment of the course syllabus.

Please go to http://go.utdallas.edu/syllabus-policies for these policies.

Field Trip Policies, Off-Campus Instruction and Course Activities

Student Conduct and Discipline

Academic Integrity

Copyright Notice

Email Use

Class Attendance

Withdrawal from Class

Student Grievance Procedures

Access Ability Services

Religious Holy Days

Resources to Help You Succeed

The descriptions and timelines contained in this syllabus are subject to change at the discretion
of the Professor.

Course Syllabus Page 4