Future United States Air Force (USAF) and National Air and Space Administration (NASA) space systems such as Space Based Radar (SBR), Space Based Laser (SBL), and Space Station will incorporate smart structures/skins as part of their active vibration control system to sense, evaluate, and damp out any natural and spurious vibrations and health monitoring system to sense any degradation to the structure. The concept called smart structures/skins is identified as one of the Project Forecast II technology areas. A smart structure /skin is defined as the embedment of sensors, actuators, and microprocessors in the material which forms the structure. One particular sensor that is being studied in depth is fiber optic. Fiber optics are lightweight, immune to electromagnetic interference, and are easily embeddable into composite material. The Astronautics Laboratory (AL) is committed to develop and incorporate this technology into future space systems. This paper describes the current and future activities, both in-house and contractual at AL, in the area of smart structures/skins with emphasis placed on the role of fiber optics. Items to be discussed include, types of sensor and actuator systems, areas that future research and development need to address, and plans to incorporate smart structures/skins into future space systems.


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    Title :

    Air force astronautics laboratory smart structures and skins program overview


    Additional title:

    programmübersicht für 'Smart Structures and Skins' des astronautischen Labors der US-Luftwaffe


    Contributors:


    Publication date :

    1990


    Size :

    8 Seiten


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English