Experimental thermo-stress analysis for a bending shape control of composite beams embedded with SMA wires

Gang Zhou; Peter Lloyd

doi:10.1117/12.839580

20 October 2009 Experimental thermo-stress analysis for a bending shape control of composite beams embedded with SMA wires

Gang Zhou, Peter Lloyd

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 7493, Second International Conference on Smart Materials and Nanotechnology in Engineering; 74931E (2009) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.839580
Event: Second International Conference on Smart Materials and Nanotechnology in Engineering, 2009, Weihai, China

Abstract

An experimental study has been conducted to design and fabricate smart composite beams embedded with prestrained nitinol wire actuators. The fabrication process developed allowed both quasi-isotropic E-glass/epoxy and carbon/epoxy hosts to be eccentrically embedded with 10 parallel prestrained wires with a purpose-made alignment device and cured successfully in an autoclave. Smart composite beams of three different lengths were made for each type of host. Both single-cycle and multi-cycle thermomechanical bending actuations of these beams in the cantilever set-up were characterised experimentally by applying various levels of electric current to the nitinol wires. The performance characteristics showed that the present fabrication process was repeatable and reliable. While the end deflections of up to 41 mm were easily achieved from smart E-glass/epoxy beams, the limited end deflections were observed from the smart carbon/epoxy beams due primarily to our inability to insulate the nitinol wires. Moreover, it seemed necessary to overheat the prestrained wires to much higher temperatures beyond the complete reverse transformation in order to generate recovery stress.

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Gang Zhou and Peter Lloyd "Experimental thermo-stress analysis for a bending shape control of composite beams embedded with SMA wires", Proc. SPIE 7493, Second International Conference on Smart Materials and Nanotechnology in Engineering, 74931E (20 October 2009); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.839580

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