Book excerpt: Smart materials are materials that have one or more property that can be significantly changed in a controlled fashion by external stimuli, such as stress, temperature, moisture, or pH. Active materials and smart structures offer a wealth of new opportunities to human ingenuity and engineering design. Whereas smart structures have the attributes of adaptability, flexibility, and even 'intelligence', the active materials are the enabling factors that make smart composite structures possible. This new Major Reference Work on smart materials provides a full and comprehensive source of information for both researchers and practitioners on the fundamental and recent developments in the fields of design, development, manufacturing and application of smart materials. Comprehensive subject coverage across the whole field of Smart Materials in one integrated resource In-depth explanation of the latest developments and research topics Thematically arranged to allow the user to easily find what they need