IUTAM Symposium on Multiscale Modelling of Fatigue, Damage and Fracture in Smart Materials

The stable performance and reliability of sensor and actuator components under complex service loads is of paramount importance for the further acceptance and successful application of adaptive mechanical systems in high tech areas. Most promising smart materials are piezoelectric, ferroelectric and electrostrictive ceramics or polymers as well as magnetostrictive and shape memory alloys. However, these materials suffer from various physical degradation mechanisms and possess low fracture toughness. Furthermore, smart materials are usually joint with other compound materials (electrodes, components) or are embedded as particles, fibres or layers into composite materials systems. As a consequence of heterogeneity, field coupling effects and fabrication, smart materials systems are exposed to high mechanical and/or electromagnetical field concentrations under internal and external loading. For this reason, the investigation of fatigue, damage and fracture play a decisive role for the optimum design, reliability and durability of smart materials systems. These problems represent an active research area and form a scientific challenge for both solid mechanics, materials science and physics of condensed matter.