2019 Scienceline Publication  
Journal of Civil Engineering and Urbanism  
Volume 9, Issue 4: 24-35; July 25, 2019  
ISSN-2252-0430  
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.29252/scil.2019.jceu4  
Innovative Civil Engineering Applications of Smart Materials for  
Smart Sustainable Urbanization  
  
Mohammad Noori1,2 and Peyman Narjabadifam3,4  
1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, California Polytechnic State University, 93405 San Luis Obispo CA, USA  
2 Distinguished Visiting National Chair Professor, Southeast University, Nanjing, China  
3 Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Bonab, 5551761167 Bonab, Iran  
4 Department of Structural Earthquake Engineering, Sharestan Tarh Tabriz Consultants, 5166846849 Tabriz, Iran  
Corresponding author’s Email: narjabadi@tabrizu.ac.ir  
ABSTRACT  
Urban areas are formed by buildings and many other types of structures. Smart and sustainable structures in this  
regard are required for smart sustainable urbanization, to be consistent with the progressive development of the  
world. Materials possessing a capability of adapting themselves with their environment, either in passive or active  
conditions, are known as smart materials and capable of bringing smartness into our structures. There are different  
types of smart materials that can be utilized in the construction of structures. Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs), fiber  
optics, piezoelectric materials, Magneto-Rheological (MR) fluids, Electro-Rheological (ER) fluids and  
magnetostrictive materials are the promising examples of smart materials that deserve increasing interest in civil  
engineering applications. Innovative applications of these materials in construction industry are investigated in this  
paper. Brief descriptions of the physical principles are provided, and the proof of concept demonstrations are  
presented. Advantages and limitations of the implementation of each material in civil structures are defined and the  
effectiveness of passive systems are discussed. It is concluded that SMAs are the best candidates among the  
available smart materials that can be used for earthquake-resistant design of structures. The suitability of SMAs as  
aseismic devices is then verified experimentally. It is also shown that materials with damping and stiffness  
properties changing by changes in stress/strain and/or acceleration are similarly useful for the purpose of earthquake  
protection of structures. Production and application of these types of smart materials, however, require further  
research but seems to be more attractive in the civil engineering profession.  
Keywords: Smart Materials; Sustainable Urbanization; Civil Structures; Earthquake Protection; Aseismic Devices.  
INTRODUCTION  
for external sources of energy. The main difference  
between conventional and smart materials is then in  
producing the useful and extraordinary response because  
all the materials react in any form to their environment.  
This extraordinary response to a form of engineering and  
environmental excitations (Schwartz, 2009) is provided by  
different mechanisms such as change in crystallographic  
structure. Smart systems are similarly defined as systems  
with a certain level of smartness or autonomy toward  
structural safety and serviceability as well as the extension  
of structural service life, relying on inherent properties of  
materials or embedded functions of added sensors,  
actuators, and processors that can automatically adjust  
structural properties in response to excitations (Otani et  
al., 2000). The various types of smart materials are listed  
below:  
Materials play an important role in civil engineering and  
urban development. Application of proper materials and  
systems in civil structures results in improved structural  
performances that satisfy the public requirements in urban  
areas.  
Structures designed with conventional materials and  
traditional systems have limited capacities in providing  
high performances (Cheng et al., 2008). The search for  
non-conventional materials and non-traditional structural  
systems to satisfy high performance requirements has  
been the main task during the past years (Saadat et al.,  
2002). Smart materials are a category of materials capable  
of improving the performances of civil structures.  
The word smart is often used to market new  
products (Worden et al., 2003) but in principle a material  
is smart if it possesses an awareness of its situation and  
reacts to its environment by changing one or more of its  
properties to produce a reversible useful effect or response  
upon receiving an excitation. This can be either active or  
passive, occurring respectively with or without the need  
Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs)  
Fiber optics  
Piezoelectric Materials (PEMs)  
Electro/Magneto-Rheological (ER/MR) Fluids  
Magnetostrictive Materials  
Citation: Noori M and Narjabadifam P. (2019). Innovative civil engineering applications of smart materials for smart sustainable urbanization. J. Civil Eng. Urban., 9(4): 24-35.  
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Noori and Narjabadifam, 2019  
Possible applications of smart materials and systems  
SMA braces has also been addressed in the literature  
(Cardone and Narjabadifam, 2011; Qiu and Zhu, 2017;  
Narjabadifam and Hejazirad, 2018). Figure 2(c) illustrates  
the device studied by Qiu and Zhu (2017). As far as the  
application of SMAs in the role of reinforcements of  
concrete elements is considered, reference can be given to  
the studies by Abdulridha et al. (2013), Wang and Zhu  
(2018), and Wang et al. (2019). Figure 2(d) provides the  
work presented by Abdulridha et al. (2013).  
in civil engineering mainly include structural health  
monitoring, vibration suppression, minimization of  
vibratory loads, and earthquake mitigation (Chopra and  
Sirohi, 2014). Effective practical application requires a  
detailed investigation on physical principles and the study  
of pros and cons of using these materials in civil  
engineering structures and urban projects.  
In the following sections, innovative applications of  
smart materials in civil engineering projects are  
investigated and the proof of concept demonstrations are  
provided, giving the required details with regard to the  
physical principles. Advantages and limitations of the  
application of each material class (SMAs, fiber optics,  
PEMs, ERs, MRs, and magnetostrictive materials) are  
discussed and the most useful applications are concluded,  
addressing also the challenges.  
(a)  
Shape memory alloys and their applications  
SMAs are a class of smart materials capable of  
recovering from large deformations through the  
application of heat or removal of stress. Recovering  
capability due to the application of heat is known as the  
shape memory effect, when the recovery through the  
removal of stress is referred to as superelasticity (or  
pseudoelasticity). Figure  
1 provides the schematic  
representation of these two specific behaviors.  
(b)  
Figure 1. The schematic representation of shape memory  
effect and superelasticity of SMA materials  
These two specific behaviors are caused by the  
crystalline phase changes between martensitic (twinned or  
detwinned) and austenitic phases.  
(c)  
SMAs have been used in many different fields of  
engineering over the past years (Cismasiu, 2010).  
Application of SMAs in civil engineering relies on unique  
recovering, energy dissipation, and isolation mechanisms  
provided by these materials (Dolce and Cardone, 2001). A  
practical application based on energy dissipation  
mechanism including also martensitic recovering has been  
tried by Ocel et al. (2004) using martensitic SMA tendons  
in the connections of steel frames (see Figure 2a). As it is  
shown in Figure 2(b), SMA-based Beam-column  
connections have similarly been recently investigated by  
Moradi and Shahria Alam (2015). The implementation of  
(d)  
Figure 2. Civil engineering applications of SMAs in the  
forms of (a) martensitic beam-column connections (Ocel  
et al., 2004), (b) austenitic beam-column connections  
(Moradi and Shahria Alam, 2015), (c) braces (Qiu and  
Zhu, 2017), and (d) rebars (Abdulridha et al., 2013).  
Citation: Noori M., Narjabadifam P. 2019. Innovative civil engineering applications of smart materials for smart sustainable urbanization. J Civil Eng Urban, 9(4): 24-35.  
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J Civil Eng Urban, 9 (4): 24-35, 2019  
The most favorable application of SMAs, however,  
(2003), Casciati et al. (2007), Attanasi et al. (2008),  
Cardone et al. (2009), Ozbulut and Hurlebaus (2010),  
Khodaverdian et al. (2012), Hedayati Dezfuli (2013),  
Ozbulut and Silwal (2014), Huang et al. (2014), Fang et  
al. (2015), and Narjabadifam (2015). Figure 3 provides a  
brief history of SMA-based aseismic isolation systems.  
is the application of these materials as isolation devices.  
The first attempt to use SMAs as isolation devices has  
been carried out by Dolce et al. (2000). Several systems  
are then proposed by different researchers including Wild  
et al. (2000), Khan and Lagoudas (2002), Cardone et al.  
(a)  
(b)  
(c)  
(d)  
(e)  
(f)  
(g)  
(h)  
Practical  
Application  
Requires a  
(i)  
(j)  
Construction-  
Industry-Friendly  
System!  
Figure 3. The SMA-based aseismic isolation systems: (a) Dolce et al (2000); (b) Wild et al. (2000); (c) Khan and Lagoudas  
(2002); (d) Cardone et al. (2003); (e) Casciati et al (2007); (f) Attanasi et al. (2008); (g) Cardone et al. (2009); (h) Hedayati  
Dezfuli and Shahria Alam (2013); (i) Ozbulut and Silwal (2014); (j) Narjabadifam (2015).  
Citation: Noori M., Narjabadifam P. 2019. Innovative civil engineering applications of smart materials for smart sustainable urbanization. J Civil Eng Urban, 9(4): 24-35.  
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Noori and Narjabadifam, 2019  
Figure 4(a) shows the application of fiber optics for  
Fiber optics and their applications  
the purpose of health monitoring of a high-rise building in  
Japan. Figure 4(b) aims at the same but in the concrete  
structures. In figure 4(c) the application in geotechnical  
engineering is represented and figure 4(d) is an example  
of the application in offshore environmental engineering.  
The application in bridges is also shown in figure 4(e).  
The early application of fiber optics in civil  
structures was reported in 1990s by embedding them in  
concrete for sensing purposes (Chopra and Sirohi, 2014).  
Up to date, different applications have been reported or  
discussed by Akhras (2000), Habel and Krebber (2011),  
Mikami and Nishizawa (2015), Barrias et al. (2016), Joe  
et al. (2018), and Wu et al. (2018 a,b). Figure 4 provides  
some examples for the applications of fiber optics in civil  
engineering projects.  
Piezoelectric materials and their applications  
Piezoelectric materials are popular smart materials  
discovered in the year 1880 by Pierre Curie and Jacques  
Curie (Schwartz, 2009). The word “piezo” is a Greek  
word meaning “to press”. Piezoelectricity means, in this  
regard, electricity generated pressure (πιεζειν, in Greek  
language). Piezoelectric materials respond very quickly to  
changes in voltages. They can be used to generate precise  
motions with repeatable oscillations. Piezoelectric  
materials can be natural or man-made. The most famous  
material that naturally exhibits piezoelectric effect is  
quartz, but man-made materials are more efficient. From a  
theoretical point of view, the piezoelectric effect is a  
phenomenon involving electromechanical interconversion  
between mechanical strain and electrical charge in  
piezoelectric materials. Their relationship can be generally  
expressed on the basis of linear coupling equations based  
on stress, strain, electric field, elastic stiffness coefficient,  
electrical displacement, piezoelectric stress coefficient,  
and the dielectric permittivity for constant stress (Cheng et  
al., 2019).  
(a)  
The Fiber Optic Sensor  
(b)  
The Fiber Optic Sensor  
A piezoelectric material is indeed a substance that  
produces an electric charge when a mechanical strain or  
stress is applied, producing also a mechanical deformation  
when an electric field is applied. The former is termed  
direct piezoelectric effect and the latter is known as  
inverse (converse) piezoelectric effect (Worden et al.,  
2003). These effects are formed in the crystalline structure  
of the material. To explain these effects, the molecular  
structure of the crystals should be investigated. Each  
molecule in this structure has a polarization, in which one  
end is more negatively charged and the other end is  
positively charged. This situation results in a dipole. The  
polar axis can be considered as the imaginary line that  
runs through the center of both charges on the molecule.  
The arrangement of these polar axes is the source of the  
piezoelectric effects. The piezoelectric materials are  
naturally found with random polar axes within a  
polycrystalline structure. This polycrystalline structure  
can be changed to the monocrystalline structure with polar  
axes arranged in the same direction, when the material is  
subjected to mechanical stress or electric field. Figure 5  
(c)  
(d)  
The  
Fiber  
Optic  
Sensor  
The Fiber Optic Sensor  
(e)  
The Fiber Optic Sensor  
shows  
a
schematic representation of the basic  
polycrystalline structure near to a sample of natural quartz  
and illustrates both the direct and the inverse piezoelectric  
effects paying the attention on the dipoles and the changes  
in the dimensions in a general shape.  
Figure 4. Fiber optics in civil structures: (a) Mikami and  
Nishizawa (2015); (b) Barrias et al. (2016); (c) Habel and  
Krebber (2011); (d) Joe et al. (2018); (e) Akhras (2000).  
Citation: Noori M., Narjabadifam P. 2019. Innovative civil engineering applications of smart materials for smart sustainable urbanization. J Civil Eng Urban, 9(4): 24-35.  
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J Civil Eng Urban, 9 (4): 24-35, 2019  
(a)  
(a)  
(b)  
(b)  
(c)  
(c)  
(d)  
Figure 5: Piezoelectricity: (a) the natural quartz; (b)  
Schematic representation of the basic polycrystalline  
structure with the random polar axes; (c) the direct  
piezoelectric effect; (d) the inverse piezoelectric effect  
(d)  
Civil engineering applications of piezoelectric  
effects include mainly health monitoring of structures,  
repair, and energy harvesting. As shown in figure 6(a),  
they can also be used as dampers (Chen et al., 2019).  
Figure 6(b) shows the application for health monitoring of  
a bridge (Shimoi et al., 2012), figure 6(c) represents the  
application for the purpose of repair (Duan and Wang,  
2010), and figure 6(d) shows the studies for energy  
harvesting applications in buildings (Elhalwagy et al.,  
2017) and highways (Jiang et al., 2014).  
Figure  
6.  
Civil  
engineering  
applications  
of  
piezoelectricity: (a) as dampers (Chen et al., 2019); (b) for  
structural health monitoring (Shimoi et al., 2012); (c) for  
the purpose of repair (Duan and Wang, 2010); (d) as  
energy harvesting devices (Elhalwagy et al., 2017 and  
Jiang et al., 2014).  
Citation: Noori M., Narjabadifam P. 2019. Innovative civil engineering applications of smart materials for smart sustainable urbanization. J Civil Eng Urban, 9(4): 24-35.  
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Noori and Narjabadifam, 2019  
Electro/magneto-rheological fluids and their  
applications  
Electro-Rheological (ER) and Magneto-Rheological  
(MR) fluids are known as smart fluids because they can  
change their states from liquid to gel or semisolid and vice  
versa with response times on the order of milliseconds.  
The basics of ER and MR fluids were discovered in the  
late 1940s and early 1950s, when most of the initial  
research was focused on ER fluids (Chopra and Sirohi,  
2014). The higher attention on ERs, however, was  
because of that devices based on ERs have a very simple  
geometry and are easy to construct when compared with  
MR devices.  
As it was mentioned above, the key characteristic of  
ERs and MRs is indeed an easy-to-obtain significant  
change in fluid viscosity with the application of electric or  
magnetic field respectively for ER and MR fluids. This  
specific property owes to the presence of the suspended  
particles that are sensitive to electric and magnetic fields.  
The suspended particles are randomly distributed in the  
fluid if there is no field (electric or magnetic) available,  
but in the presence of electric or magnetic field the  
suspended particles form chains. This is shown in figure 7  
representing the micrography of a MR fluid under the  
effect of a magnetic field, in comparison with the  
micrography of the fluid with no magnetic field  
(Spaggiari, 2013). As a result of the creation of the chains  
inside the fluid, the rheological properties change under  
the effect of the applied field.  
Figure 8: Schematic representations of the arrangement of  
the suspended particles in ER (up) and MR (down) fluids,  
subjected to respectively electric and magnetic fields  
As far as the application is considered, both ER-  
based and MR-based devices can be produced and used in  
civil engineering projects (Makris et al., 1996; Choi and  
Wereley, 2002). MRs, however, are preferred to ERs  
because of three main limits of ERs: (i) very limited yield  
stress (maximum 5–10 kPa) of ERs, (ii) common  
impurities that might be introduced during manufacturing  
and may reduce the capacity of ERs, and (iii) high-voltage  
(about 4000 V) power supply required to control ERs,  
resulting in safety, availability, and cost issues (Cheng et  
al, 2008). Figure 9 shows the schematics of both ER and  
MR dampers to represent the working principles of them.  
Figure 7: The micrography of a MR fluid subjected to  
magnetic field (left), compared with the micrography of  
the fluid without magnetic field (Spaggiari, 2013)  
ER and MR fluids are very similar in terms of their  
composition and behavior. ER fluids change their  
properties in response to an electric field, while MR fluids  
respond to a magnetic field. Both the responses are  
schematically shown in figure 8. ER and MR fluids are,  
however, different in terms of their density, yield stress,  
and other mechanical properties. The yield stress of MR  
fluids is an order of magnitude higher than that of ER  
fluids. MR fluids are, in addition, much more tolerant to  
impurities and can be operated by low voltage power  
supply. This low voltage is much safer to work, compared  
to the high voltage required for ER fluid devices.  
Figure 9: Schematics of ER (up) and MR (down) dampers  
(Cheng et al., 2008), representing the working principles  
of these two smart dampers  
Citation: Noori M., Narjabadifam P. 2019. Innovative civil engineering applications of smart materials for smart sustainable urbanization. J Civil Eng Urban, 9(4): 24-35.  
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A more detailed prototype schematic of the MR  
Magnetostrictive materials and their applications  
damper, which is more attractive for seismic protection of  
civil engineering structures, is also shown in figure 10,  
providing at the same time its application in a bridge  
(Weber et al., 2006). It should be noted that the  
application is displayed right after installation in a bridge  
near Kampen city in Netherlands, and thus without a  
protective cover.  
Magnetostriction is a smart property of some  
ferromagnetic materials which causes them to expand or  
contract in response to a magnetic field. This smart effect  
indeed allows magnetostrictive materials to convert  
electromagnetic energy into mechanical energy, which is  
attractive for engineering purposes and can also be useful  
in civil engineering applications. Once a magnetic field is  
applied to a magnetostrictive material, its molecular  
dipoles and magnetic field domains rotate to align with  
the field. This causes the material to strain and elongate.  
The magnetostrictive effect was first discovered by James  
Prescott Joule in 1842, when he was observing a sample  
of iron that resulted in definition of the concept of  
magnetostriction. This effect, for this reason, is also  
known as Joule’s effect (Ghorbanpour Arani and  
Khoddami Maraghi, 2016).  
(a)  
Terfenol-D (an alloy of the formula TbxDy1−xFe2  
(x~0.3), initially developed in the 1970s) is the well-  
known material that possesses magnetostrictive properties,  
with the highest magnetostriction exhibited among other  
materials (Dong et al., 2011; Yang, 2016).  
The most popular and simple model to explain the  
magnetostriction behavior is the ellipsoid model. This  
model is demonstrated in figure 11. In this model, the  
magnetic boundaries are represented by ellipsoids with  
predefined magnetic directions. Under magnetic field,  
ellipsoids rotate and cause a change in dimension. The  
change in dimension due to the magnetostrictive effect  
can be increased if a pre-stress is applied before. The  
ellipsoid model can also be used to explain the effect of  
pre-stress on magnetostriction, which is included in figure  
11. Applying a pre-stress make the ellipsoids rotate away  
from the stress direction. Then if a magnetic field is  
applied in the direction of the applied stress, the resulting  
elongation will be larger than that without pre-stress.  
(b)  
Figure 10. Implementation of MR dampers in structural  
control of a bridge: (a) the detailed 3D schematic of the  
prototype; (b) the photograph of the damper right after  
installation (Weber et al., 2006)  
Many other applications and investigations have also  
been reported, up to date. Application of MR dampers in  
base isolation systems (Oliveira et al., 2018) and the study  
of ageing effects (Caterino et al., 2018) are the most  
recent examples.  
Figure  
11.  
Schematic  
representation  
of  
the  
magnetostrictive effect (normal state and pre-stress added)  
described by the ellipsoid model.  
Citation: Noori M., Narjabadifam P. 2019. Innovative civil engineering applications of smart materials for smart sustainable urbanization. J Civil Eng Urban, 9(4): 24-35.  
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Noori and Narjabadifam, 2019  
Magnetostrictive materials can be used as sensors  
ADVANTAGES AND LIMITATIONS OF THE  
APPLICATION OF EACH MATERIAL  
and/or actuators for the purposes of vibration control or  
non-destructive evaluation of civil engineering structures.  
Figure 12(a) shows the schematic of a magnetostrictive  
actuator that can be used in vibration control (Deng and  
Dapino, 2018) and figure 12(b) is the photograph of a  
As it was discussed in the previous sections, the smartness  
of smart materials can be either active or passive. The  
smartness in civil engineering can then be achieved by  
active, passive, semi-active, or hybrid smart systems  
(Cheng et al., 2008). Active systems require external  
sources of energy with large control efforts that may cause  
control-induced instability. They work also generally  
based on some complicated devices, which are not  
available always in practice. Passive systems, on the other  
hand, are generally simple-structured and consume no  
addition energy but sometimes not fully adaptive to the  
possible uncertainties. Semi-active and hybrid systems lift  
typically the limitations and the drawbacks but remain  
rather complicated again to obtain widespread application  
in civil engineering projects. Construction industry, in this  
regard, is more interested in the passive smart systems  
being also robust and cost-effective in addition to the  
above-mentioned merits.  
setup  
for  
the  
experimental  
investigation  
of  
magnetostrictive actuators in vibration control of a beam  
(Moon et al., 2005), and figure 12(c) demonstrates the  
application of magnetostrictive sensors in non-destructive  
evaluation of concrete structures (Dong et al., 2011).  
(a)  
Civil engineering structures, in general, are  
subjected to large forces. Earthquakes are one of the most  
important sources of these large forces. Smart earthquake-  
resistant design of civil engineering structures requires  
large-scale smart devices. Some of the smart materials,  
however, fail to satisfy this requirement. This will be  
evident if one compares the orders of magnitudes of the  
forces generated by different smart materials. The  
discussion provided in the relating previous section to  
compare ER dampers with MR dampers is an example of  
this. SMAs are more suitable for this purpose, compared  
to the other smart materials. The unique superelastic  
behavior exhibited by the austenitic form of these alloys is  
the most favorable characteristic of them for earthquake  
(b)  
protection of structures.  
A
simple experimental  
verification of this effectiveness is provided in figure 13,  
showing the behavior exhibited by a 1mm diameter SMA  
wire subjected to cyclic loading, in addition to the proofs  
available in the literature (Dolce and Cardone, 2001;  
Saadat et al., 2002; Cardone et al., 2011). The wires used  
in this study were supplied by a French company (nimesis  
technology: a leading company in the development of  
SMA-based devices, www.nimesis.com) and the alloy  
type was NiTi, which is the most famous SMA but rather  
expensive. Many other alloys, however, can be used and  
the performances are similar. Iron-based alloys have  
recently been proposed to provide better performances at a  
lower cost (Cladera et al., 2014; Wen et al., 2014; Sakon,  
2018). Various structural elements, in addition can be  
produced by SMAs. Wires, wire bundles, bars, films, and  
most recently wire ropes are some examples. Bars and  
wire ropes are the most suitable elements for large-scale  
civil engineering structures, when the wire ropes are  
preferred in practice with regard to some metallurgical  
difficulties included in the production of the bars  
(c)  
Figure 12. Civil engineering applications of the  
magnetostrictive materials: (a) schematic of  
magnetostrictive actuator (Deng and Dapino, 2018); (b)  
vibration control of a beam (Moon et al., 2005); (c) non-  
destructive evaluation (Dong et al., 2011)  
a
Citation: Noori M., Narjabadifam P. 2019. Innovative civil engineering applications of smart materials for smart sustainable urbanization. J Civil Eng Urban, 9(4): 24-35.  
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J Civil Eng Urban, 9 (4): 24-35, 2019  
(Reedlunn et al., 2013; Mercuri, 2014; Carboni et al.,  
engineering structures. This would be preferred to be  
passive, as discussed above, but an active control is also  
applicable. Production and application of these types of  
smart materials, however, form a challenge in this field  
and require further research but seems to be more  
attractive in the civil engineering profession.  
2015; Kitamura, 2016; Ozbulut et al., 2015; Biggs, 2017).  
Active Control Devices  
Superstructure  
Base Slab  
(if required)  
Self-centering  
Mechanism  
(if required)  
Foundation  
Gap Cover  
Smart Stiffness-  
Smart Damping  
Gap Seal  
Figure 14: Acceleration/strain-sensitive smart stiffness  
and smart damping properties can be useful in civil  
engineering  
CONCLUSION  
The applications of smart materials in civil engineering  
projects was investigated based on the evaluation of their  
working principles and the review of previous innovative  
applications. The investigation was started with the study  
of Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs). It was shown that  
SMAs find lots of applications in civil engineering  
projects, based on both superelasticity and shape memory  
effect. Fiber optics were evaluated as the useful sensors  
for structural health monitoring of a wide range of  
structures. Piezoelectricity was found to be useful for  
damping devices, for structural health monitoring, for the  
purpose of repair, and for the energy harvesting devices.  
Electro-Rheological (ER) fluid dampers were compared to  
Magneto-Rheological fluid dampers and it was shown that  
MRs are more suitable for civil engineering applications  
because of some drawbacks of ERs such as their very  
limited yield stress and the high-voltage power supply  
required to provide the control effect. The principles of  
magnetostriction were investigated and it was shown that  
magnetostrictive materials can be used as actuators and  
sensors in vibration control and non-destructive evaluation  
of structures. A discussion was then provided on the  
advantages and limitations of the application of each  
smart material in civil engineering projects. Based on the  
specific requirements of the civil engineering structures,  
in which the need for large-scale elements is the most  
important of them specifically when the earthquake  
protection is considered, it was concluded that SMAs are  
Figure 13: Experimental verification of the suitability of  
SMAs for structural earthquake engineering applications:  
(up) the test apparatus; (down) the superelastic behavior  
exhibited by the tested SMA wire under cyclic loading  
As it can be seen, a high reversable strain within a  
repeatable hysteretic behavior providing also an  
acceptable energy dissipation property can be obtained by  
these materials. These features are indeed suitable for the  
application in aseismic design.  
Further developments in the field of smart materials  
regarding their applications in civil engineering structures  
can be addressed in the production of materials with  
damping and stiffness properties changing by changes in  
stress/strain and/or acceleration. As it is shown in figure  
14, these kinds of smart materials can be used for the  
purpose of earthquake protection of structures. They can  
provide an isolation mechanism, as the most popular and  
effective method of aseismic control for most of the civil  
Citation: Noori M., Narjabadifam P. 2019. Innovative civil engineering applications of smart materials for smart sustainable urbanization. J Civil Eng Urban, 9(4): 24-35.  
www.ojceu.ir  
32  
Noori and Narjabadifam, 2019  
Cardone D, Narjabadifam P (2011). Behavior factor of flag-  
the most useful materials for aseismic design of civil  
engineering structures. It was also shown that acceleration  
or strain -sensitive smart stiffness and smart damping  
properties can be useful in civil engineering, providing an  
effective isolation mechanism, for example, which form a  
challenge in the field of materials engineering motivated  
by a high degree of interest in civil engineering.  
shaped hysteretic models for the seismic retrofit of  
structures. Proceedings of 6th International Conference on  
Seismology and Earthquake Engineering, Tehran, Iran.  
(Search CIVILICA)  
Cardone D, Palermo G, Narjabadifam P (2009). Smart restorable  
sliding base isolation system for the aseismic control of  
structures. Proceedings of 11th World Conference on  
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Control  
http://www.16wcsi.org/  
of  
Structures,  
Guangzhou,  
China.  
DECLARATIONS  
Casciati F, Faravelli L, Hamdaoui K (2007). Performance of a  
base isolator with shape memory alloy bars. Earthquake  
Engineering and Engineering Vibration, 6: 401-408.  
(Search Google Scholar; Import into EndNote)  
Acknowledgement  
We would like to thank Mr. Eng. Davood Sattarian  
from Sharestan Tarh Tabriz consultants for his kind  
assistance in drawing some representative figures of this  
article.  
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10-year experimental investigation. Smart Materials and  
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Authors’ contributions  
Authors of this research paper have directly  
participated in the planning, execution, or analysis of this  
study and have read and approved the final version  
submitted.  
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Conflict of interest statement  
We hereby state that, there is no conflict of interest  
whatsoever with any third party.  
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