This book describes a mathematical treatment of a novel concept in material science that characterizes the properties of dynamic materials--material substances whose properties are variable in space and time. The book discusses some general features of dynamic materials as thermodynamically open systems; it gives their adequate tensor description in the context of Maxwell's theory of moving dielectrics and makes a special emphasis on the theoretical analysis of spatio-temporal material composites (such as laminates and checkerboard structures). Some unusual applications are listed along with the discussion of some typical optimization problems in space-time via dynamic materials. This book will interest applied mathematicians interested in optimal problems of material design for systems governed by hyperbolic differential equations; researchers in the field of smart metamaterials and their applications to optimal material design in dynamics.

A General Concept of Dynamic Materials.- An Activated Elastic Bar: Effective Properties.- Dynamic Materials in Electrodynamics of Moving Dielectrics.- G-closures of a Set of Isotropic Dielectrics with Respect to One-Dimensional Wave Propagation.- Rectangular Microstructures in Space-Time.- Some Applications of Dynamic Materials in Electrical Engineering and Optimal Design.

This book has emerged from the study of a new concept in material science that has been realized about a decade ago. Before that, I had been working for more than 20 years on conventional composites assembled in space and therefore adjusted to optimal material design in statics. The reason for that adjustmentisthatsuchcompositesappearedtobecomenecessaryparticipants in almost any optimal material design related to a state of equilibrium. A theoretical study of conventional composites has been very extensive over a long period of time. It received stimulation through many engineering applications, and some of the results have become a part of modern industrial technology. But again, the ordinary composites are all about statics, or, at the utmost, are related to control over the free vibration modes, a situation conceptually close to a static equilibrium. The world of dynamics appears to be quite di?erent in this aspect. When it comes to motion, the immovable material formations distributed in space alone become insu?cient as the elements of design because they are incapable of getting fully adjusted to the temporal variation in the environment. To be able to adequately handle dynamics, especially the wave motion, the material medium must itself be time dependent, i.e. its material properties should vary in space and time alike. Any substance demonstrating such variation has been termed a dynamic material [1].