The second part of this work discusses the fabrication and testing of a fuel-powered shape
memory alloy actuator system (FPSMAAS) and its main components. Fuel (propane) is
burned in a combustor and its heat is transferred to a working fluid medium, which in turn
transfers the heat to the SMA element to drive its martensite-to-austenite phase
transformation. For the austenite-to-martensite transformation, the heat is removed
from the SMA element by a cooling fluid, from which the heat is then removed
via a heat exchanger. The process of implementing the FPSMAAS consisted of
three phases of increasing complexity, corresponding to three generations of the
actuator system. For the final generation of the FPSMAAS, the SMA element was
housed in a rectangular channel, featuring an innovative way of separating the
cold from the hot fluid medium that alternately come in contact with the SMA
element, in order to minimize the mixing between them. To meet our goal of
miniaturization, a multi-channel combustor/heat exchanger and a micro-tube heat
exchanger were developed and tested. The final actuator system was composed of
pumps, solenoid valves, check valves, bellows, a micro-tube heat exchanger, a
multi-channel combustor/heat exchanger and a control unit. The experimental tests of
the final system resulted in 250 N force with 2.1 mm displacement and 1.0 Hz
actuation frequency in closed-loop operation. The test results for the individual
components as well as the final assembled actuator are compared with the results of the
numerical analyses conducted in Part I and a good agreement has been demonstrated.