IUTAM Symposium on Mechanics and Reliability of Actuating Materials : Proceedings of the IUTAM Symposium held in Beijing, China, 1-3 September, 2004 : Springer : 9789048170524 : 9048170524 : 25 Nov 2010 : Actuating materials hold a promise for fast-spreading applications in smart structures and active control systems, and have attracted extensive attention from scientists of both mechanics and materials sciences communities. High performance and stability of actuating materials and structures play a decisive role in their successive applications as sensors and actuators in structural control and robotics. The advances of actuating materials, however, recently encountered a severe reliability issue. For a better understanding toward this issue, scientific efforts are of paramount significance to gain a deep insight into the intricate deformation and failure behaviors of actuating materials. To examine the state of the art in this subject, the general assembly of IUTAM approved in August