Recent earthquakes and space program-related news serve as potentreminders of the uses fiber optic technology offers to anincreasingly complex world. Like living organisms sensitive tosubtle changes in the environment, buildings, structures, and spacevehicles can be equipped to sense and react to their surroundingsby means of hair-thin glass fiber sensors embedded in structuralmaterials and capable of carrying information and measuring changesin stress and other environmental factors. Data is collected andtransmitted to a central location, where the findings are assessedand damage corrected.

Fiber Optic Smart Structures pools the expertise of thirty-threeleading professionals, many of whom are pioneers in the field, andoffers a comprehensive introduction to this fast growingtechnology. Beginning with a historical overview and a look at thebackground technology, the book goes on to discuss methods ofembedding optical fibers in modern high-strength, lightweightcomposite materials; ingress and egress of optical fibers; and morespecialized application concerns, including use of the Fabry-Perotinterferometer and Bragg grating sensors. Lower cost options areconsidered in light of performance trade-offs, and broad areacoverage through single-line stringing of multiple fiber sensors iscompared with single and distributed sensor approaches.

The last section of the book treats the use of fiber optic smartstructures in a wide range of settings. Discussions includeapplications in environments where high temperature and ultrasonicwaves play a role; in the aerospace industry, where changes in thestructural integrity of the system demand real-time automaticchanges; and a rapidly emerging new direction, earthquake-resistantbuildings and, along similar lines, bridges that performself-diagnostics.

The first and only comprehensive professional reference in thisimportant, emerging field, Fiber Optic Smart Structures is a majoraddition to the libraries of aerospace engineers, mechanicalscientists, fiber optics researchers and engineers, architects, andstructural engineers. It is also a first-rate graduate-leveltextbook.

The first and only comprehensive reference on this important andemerging field...

Fiber Optic Smart Structures is the ultimate resource forengineers, architects, researchers, and anyone with an interest inthis promising new technology. Thirty-three of the world's leadingprofessionals--many of them pioneers in the field--bring youcomprehensive coverage of every important aspect of fiber opticsmart structure technology, including its history and evolution,background technologies, structural and assembly issues, sensingdevices, and numerous applications.

Topics of particular interest include:
* An introduction to advanced composite materials associated withfiber optic smart structures
* Structural integrity of materials containing embedded opticalfibers
* Methods of fiber optic ingress and egress for smart structures
* Detailed descriptions of the most useful and promising fiberoptic sensors, including those based on the Fabry-Perotinterferometer and Bragg grating
* Extended discussions of applications, including the use of fiberoptic smart structures in high-temperature environments, qualitycontrol procedures, aircraft and space vehicles,earthquake-resistant buildings, and bridges that performself-diagnostics
* And much more