Mechanics of Innovative Materials in Engineering Applications

In the last few decades, many engineers and researchers have dedicated their efforts to develop new classes of composite materials that can be used in the manufacture of aerospace components, aircrafts, boat hulls and sails, car bodies, long span roofs, as well as biomedical prostheses, electronic devices, and drones. It is evident that the structural elements that could be employed in these fields require peculiar features that composite materials can provide more than conventional constituents, such as isotropic mediums. Unidirectional fiber-reinforced composites represent one of the most characteristics materials that are currently used for these purposes. Nevertheless, it should be mentioned that advanced configurations of these mediums have attracted the attentions of many researchers, so that curvilinear fibers and their arbitrarily graded placements have been applied to achieve improved structural responses. These concepts fall within the topic of Variable Angle Tow (VAT) and Functionally Graded (FG) composites, respectively. Due to the advancements in the nanotechnologies, the reinforcing phases of composite materials can be applied at the nanoscale level. It is well-known that Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) can improve the mechanical behavior of these composites because of their remarkable physical and chemical features. As proven by the enormous number of papers available in the pertinent literature, these kinds of nanostructures represent one of the most exploited innovative mediums. Enhanced mechanical features can be also obtained by designing materials and structures with particular geometries. This class of advanced components known as lattice-based metamaterials provides peculiar properties that could be exploited in several engineering fields. Analogously, tensegrity structures and pre-stressed lattices should be mentioned for the same purpose. In addition, various applications have been presented in literature to model SMART materials and SMART-structured systems. Examples of SMART applications involve large stroke SMART actuators, piezoelectric sensors, shape memory alloys, magnetostrictive and electrostrictive materials, as well as auxetic components. These particular constituents can be included in the lamination schemes of SMART structures to control and monitor the vibrational behavior or the static deflection of several composites. All things considered, the main aim of this Special Issue is to collect various investigations focused on the mechanical analysis of composite structures and materials. Numerical analyses, analytical solutions, and experimental studies involving these composites are welcomed. Authors are encouraged to present unconventional constitutive laws and innovative homogenization techniques, advanced mechanical configurations, as well as multiscale approaches, to provide a complete framework on these groundbreaking materials and facilitate their use in different engineering applications.