DEVELOPMENT OF SMART COMPOSITES AND NANOCOMPOSITES AT HAWAII SMART COMPOSITES AND NANOTECHNOLOGY LABORATORIES

摘要

Smart Composites Structures such as Active Composite Panels (ACPs) and Active Composite Struts (ACSs) have been developed with Simultaneous Precision Positioning and Vibration Suppression (SPPVS) capabilities in the Smart Composites Laboratory of our department. These active structures are then integrated in a Modified Stewart Platform (MSP) for Thrust Vector Controls (TVC) of spacecraft. Several control strategies are developed for the ACPs, ACSs, and MSP to achieve SPPVS of these smart structures. These control strategies include Adaptive Feedforward Control (AFC), Hybrid Adaptive Control (HAC), Cascaded Feedback Control (CFC), and their combination, and are presented and compared here. Next, the development of nanodevices, nanostructures, nanocomposites, and hierarchical nanocomposites at the Hawaii Nanotechnology Laboratory of our department is explained. On nanodevices, a multifunctional nanobrush using carbon nanotubes is discussed. On nanostructures, a high-performance nanofoam using carbon nanotubes is explained. On nanocomposites, developments on toughening of polymeric materials employing nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes are reported. On hierarchical nanocomposites, first, mechanical properties improvements for continuous fiber ceramic composites using nanoparticles are discussed. Finally, the multifunctional properties improvement of a novel three-dimensional hierarchical nanocomposite employing carbon nanotube nanoforests is explained.