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High performance composites with active stiffness control.

The ability to control the flexural stiffness of a fibre reinforced composite material could revolutionise the use of composites in structural applications. Active control of the stiffness will have applications in morphing structures, collapsible and deployable structures and to introduce load redistribution on demand in statically indeterminate structures. This is the first paper in which the concept of a controllable stiffness composite has been achieved by the use of temperature sensitive coating on the reinforcing fibre. The initial research described in this paper lead to a successful CASE award proposal to the EPSRC industrial pool and a patent application (PCT/GB2013/050826).