Intelligent materials for environment and people

Priorities of R&D of materials and technology for the 21st Century are issues related to global environment and techno-democracy or public co-operation with technology. Keywords are simplicity, integration of structural reliability and functional capability, ecology, etc. The author established Ken-materials Research Consortium in 1993 for this purpose. Examples are carbon fibers and glass fiber co-reinforced plastics (CFGFRP) with improvement of mechanical performance and capability of self-monitoring of damage developed by Yanagida et al., soil–ceramics by INAX where humidity and temperature adjusting capability like soil and mechanical strength like ceramics are achieved to save energy during fabrication and during actual duties, electric cable trolleys for Shin Kansen able to monitor damage without additional sensors by JR Tokai, etc. Details of these materials and activities of the Consortium will be introduced.