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13-Smart Materials in Auto. Engg
13-Smart Materials in Auto. Engg
ABSTRACT
Smart materials have one or more properties that can be dramatically altered.
A wide variety of smart materials already exists, and is being researched extensively.
These include piezoelectric materials, magneto-rheostatic materials (MR), electro-
rheostatic materials (ER), and shape memory alloys. Some everyday items are already
incorporating smart materials (coffeepots, cars, the International Space Station,
eyeglasses) and the number of applications for them is growing steadily.
The automotive and aerospace industries were probably the first to identify
potential engineering applications of smart fluids. This paper highlights these
engineering applications - notably for vibration control and variable torque
transmission. Nowadays many additional avenues are being explored, for example
MR fluids are being developed for use in car shocks, damping machine vibration. ER
fluids have mainly been developed for use in clutches and valves, as well as engine
mounts designed to reduce noise and vibration in vehicles.
INTRODUCTION
Such controllable fluids and materials whose rheology may vary by the
application of the external inputs have long been seen as offering the possibility
simple quite rapid response interfaces between electronic controls and mechanical
systems. The automotive and aerospace industries were probably the first to identify
the potential engineering application of smart fluids and material Notably for
vibration control, variable torque transmission, medical rehabilitation, and
Chromogenic application. Nowadays, many additional avenues are been explored,
e.g., civil engineering structures,Robotics and manufacturing and distributed
structures.
An A-to-Z guide to smart materials...
Smart Materials: Emerging Markets for Intelligent Gels, Ceramics, Alloys, and
Polymers is your guide to the world of smart materials. In one handy volume it will
give you a hard-headed assessment of new applications and markets ... And brief you
on important developments related to dozens of materials in a wide range of
categories, including:
Smart application for the automotive industries are challenging for a basic
reason that is the market demand is for low cost components. The smart materials that
find application in modern cars offer many advantages and newer capabilities over
conventional materials. The following are the few advantages
1. Low power consumption,
2. Absence of moving parts,
3. Synergistic capabilities, etc.
If you own a sports car or a Cadillac, you might have MR fluids in your shock
absorbers. The stiffness of magnetic shocks can be electronically adjusted thousands
of times per second, providing a remarkably smooth ride. This is done by a semi
active suspension system, which uses ER fluid in its dampers. Smart materials can
also be used to control active cabinet noise in cars. One of the biggest breakthroughs
in smart materials research is the smart skin application to control the drag acting
on the car surface, to be used in the coming years. Lord Corp. is also studying MR
technology for seat belts and airbags in cars.
The following are some of the specific applications of smart materials in automobiles:
SMAs
1. Open-close mechanisms
2. Release mechanisms
3. Active braking systems
4. Active skin systems
Piezoelectric Materials
1. Sensors for wiper actuation
2. Sensors for side impact diagnosis (in smart cars)
3. Sensors for force/ motion
4. Sensors for platform stabilization
5. Ultrasonic motors
6. Sonar arrays for collision avoidance (in smart cars)
Magnetostrictive Materials
1. Active cabinet noise control
2. Sonar for collision avoidance (in smart cars)
3. Active sensing and actuation
PZT-5H, the piezoceramic material chosen for the silent alert, is used in
applications requiring fine movement control such as in ink-jet printers. The
material provides extremely high permissivity, coupling, and piezoelectric
constant. It has the lowest Curie point (the temperature at which a material's
magnetic or ferroelectric properties change) of the PZT-5 family of "soft"
materials, restricting its operating temperature range, and it has lower time
stability than most piezo materials.
2. Suspension systems:
3. Chromogenic systems:
Shape memory alloys are monolithic smart materials that respond to changes
in the environment and external stimuli. They usually respond to these changes
/stimuli by recovering their predefined/original shape and size.
Shape memory alloys exhibit two distinct phenomena, namely shape memory
effect and super-elastic effect. Shape memory effect shows the materials response to
temperature, i.e., thermal memory. But super-elastic effect indicates the materials
response to stress, i.e., mechanical memory.
Though shape memory alloys are used for variety of applications in the car
produced,they are in particular used for the two specific applications namely actuator
and bumber. These two different types of applications called for shape memory
alloyswith an entirely different set of material and shape memory characteristics.
While foractuators a shape memory alloy with a smaller hysteresis is preferred, for
bumpers, shape memory alloys with a larger hysteresis are desired. Shape memory
alloys with large recovery force and huge recovery strength are desired for actuator
applications.
A number of factors influence the mechanical properties and shape memory
characteristics of the alloys. Chemical composition, heat treatment, mechanical
working and grain size are some of the most important factors that influence the
transformation temperatures of shape memory alloys. For actuators, the smaller the
hysteresis width, the better the actuation capabilities are. The response time should be
as small as possible.
Following are the most important properties required for SMAs for actuatos:
Today, the cars that are being manufactured abroad have smartness or
intelligence build into them. These cars, called smart cars, exhibit what is called smart
behavior. In case of heavy downpour or snowfall, the incorporation of sensor system
into the car helps to detect the location of the lane markers and projects fascimilies of
them onto the windshield. The incorporation of smart materials makes driving even in
difficult climate or weather conditions easy and pleasurable.
Not only do the smart cars have the capability forewarn impending accident
situation but also have safety measures built into them to prevent/ minimize damage
to human lives and automobiles. They use an altogether different approach to safety.
They are equipped/ designed to predict the likelihood of occurrence of accidents.
They even give those extra few seconds to prepare for an accident and, in fact , even
react before one actually occurs.
When the car swerves too much, the smart system gets activated so that it
tightens all the seat belts, moves the front seat to upright and safe position, closes the
sun roof and opens the windows. Whenever the cars swerve/ drift from their lanes,
they are warned by means of a rumble-strip noise. These preparations help to reduce
the probability of the passenger being ejected/ thrown out of the vehicle.
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