Cold Hibernated Elastic Memory Structure: Self-Deployable Technology and Its Applications (Polymeric Foams)

Cold hibernated elastic memory (CHEM) is an innovative, smart material technology that uses shape memory polymers in open cellular structures. This book extensively describes CHEM self-deployable structures, provides basic property data and characteristics, discusses advantages, and identifies numerous space, commercial, and medical applications. Some of these applications have been experimentally and analytically investigated with inspiring results and are revealed here.

CHEM technology has a potential to provide groundbreaking self-deployable space structures. Some cutting-edge space CHEM concepts described in this book represent the introduction of a new generation of space deployable structures.

CHEM materials have unique characteristics that enable the manufacture of self-deployable stents and other medical devices not possible currently. One of the medical applications, the CHEM endovascular treatment of aneurysm, is being experimentally explored with promising results that would save lives.

This book provides a long list of interesting potential commercial CHEM applications that could simplify and make life easier at low cost. One of these products, the self-reconfiguring armchair, is already being set up for mass production.

This book will be of interest to all engineering researchers, scientists, engineers, students, designers, and technologists across their relevant fields of interest. The exceptional characteristics of CHEM technology are presently enabling technologists to develop many applications ranging from outer space to inside the human body. As a result, CHEM structures are in the process of reshaping our thinking, approaches, and design methods in many ways that conventional materials and approaches do not allow.

Dr. Witold Sokolowski has more than 30 years of experience in advanced materials, structures and electronic packaging along with the management of research and technology development work. He has been at JPL/Caltech for more than 20 years working on a variety of different R & D technology programs. In the last 15 years, he has been involved in lightweight advanced deployable structure/aperture technologies. He is a founder and principle investigator of novel, second generation Cold Hibernated Elastic Memory (CHEM) self-deployable structure technology at NASA/JPL. He is an author or co-author of more than 70 publications including papers in leading international reference technical journals, 2 US Patents and 16 NASA Novel Technology Reports (NTR). He has been invited to make chapters contribution in 4 books. He has been elected as a journal referee in several technical/scientific magazines and selected to numerous special technical assignments, professional organization/conference committees and journal peer reviews.

He has served as an advisor and thesis reader to PhD and Master Degree students in smart materials/structures area at Harvard University and other universities. He is a recipient of the Innovation and Improvement NASA Nova Award in recognition of his continued development and conception of new ideas and improvements of advanced space structures.