A review on shape memory alloy reinforced polymer composite materials and structures

Abstract

Imparting controllable flexural rigidity into a material system is one of the key motivations for the design of intelligent materials for structural applications. In this direction, shape memory alloy (SMA) reinforced polymer composites have enormous potentials for active shape and vibration control of systems related to aerospace, automobile, and energy harvesting applications. The primary motivation of reinforcing SMA wires into a composite is to actively change the composite stiffness or elasticity through thermo-mechanical as well as electrical/magnetic stimulation. The SMA -reinforced hybrid composites are found to be able to adapt their shape, which may also improve the specific strength, vibration damping, and self-healing capability by utilizing shape memory effect and pseudoelastic behavior of the SMA. In this paper, we intend to provide a comprehensive review of all SMA -reinforced composites available today in the open literature and a critical assessment of the technology. Currently, shape memory alloys in the form of long fibers (wires), ribbons, short fibers, and particles are used for hybridizing the reinforcements in composites. Continuous SMA fiber embedded composites are generally used for shape control of structures. However, it has difficulty in obtaining suitable interfacial characteristics required for actuation. The discontinuous SMA embedded composites have scope for modifying such active properties. The work presented here gives an overview of the concepts of design, development, and modeling of continuous and discontinuous shape memory alloy embedded composites for advanced smart composites.

A hygro-thermo-mechanical constitutive model for shape memory polymers filled with nano-carbon powder

“…The successful application of smart materials has greatly promoted the development of relevant industrial areas. As a class of smart materials, shape memory polymers (SMPs) and shape memory polymer composites (SMPCs) can be used in intelligent medical devices, self-driven actuators and 4D printing industry [1][2][3] by utilizing the shape memory effects (SMEs) triggered by the environmental stimuli [4][5][6][7][8][9]. In comparison with other shape memory materials, SMPs and SMPCs have the advantages of light weight, low cost, and ease of manufacturing.…”

Thermal buckling of trapezoidal composite laminated plates with embedded shape memory alloys

“…The remarkable characteristics of SMAs have led to a wide range of applications of these materials in different sections. [ 4–7 ] Particularly, they are used in the form of wires (fibers), strips, layers, as well as spiral springs to improve and control the behavior of mechanical structures such as rods, beams, plates, and shells. [ 8–15 ] In recent years, much research has been done on the use of SMA wires to increase or delay the bucking temperature of composite structure.…”

Augmentation of low frequency damping via hydrogen-doping in a hybrid shape memory alloy composite

“…A promising means of increasing damping in CFRP composites is to hybridize the CFRP material with high stiffness, high damping materials such as NiTi shape memory alloy (SMA) wires (Bachmann et al, 2012;Cohades and Michaud, 2018;Coluzzi et al, 2006aColuzzi et al, , 2006bde Oliveira et al, 2010;Finegan and Gibson, 1999;Katsiropoulos et al, 2020;Van Humbeeck and Kustov, 2005;Van Humbeeck and Liu, 2000). SMA damping capacity arises from either (i) the stress-induced austenite-tomartensite phase transformation (referred to as superelastic damping) and stress-induced martensite (SIM) reorientation and detwinning (Bhaskar et al, 2020;Cohades and Michaud, 2018;Katsiropoulos et al, 2020) or (ii) thermal-induced martensite (TIM) reorientation and detwinning (referred to as martensitic damping) (Bassani et al, 2013;Coluzzi et al, 2006a;Van Humbeeck and Kustov, 2005; Van Humbeeck and Liu, 2000). For the helicopter blade application, we investigate martensitic damping and post-processing hydrogenation heat treatments of commercially available NiTi wire.…”