Characterization of Nonlinear Rate Dependent Response of Shape Memory Polymers

Shape Memory Polymers (SMPs) are a class of polymers, which can undergo deformation in a flexible state at elevated temperatures, and when cooled below the glass transition temperature, while retaining their deformed shape, will enter and remain in a rigid state. Upon heating above the glass transition temperature, the shape memory polymer will return to its original, unaltered shape. SMPs have been reported to recover strains of over 400%. It is important to understand the stress and strain recovery behavior of SMPs to better develop constitutive models which predict material behavior. Initial modeling efforts did not account for large deformations beyond 25% strain. However, a model under current development is capable of describing large deformations of the material. This model considers the coexisting active (rubber) and frozen (glass) phases of the polymer, as well as the transitions between the material phases. The constitutive equations at the continuum level are established with internal state variables to describe the microstructural changes associated with the phase transitions. For small deformations, the model reduces to a linear model that agrees with those reported in the literature. Thermomechanical characterization is necessary for the development, calibration, and validation of a constitutive model. The experimental data reported in this paper will assist in model development by providing a better understanding of the stress and strain recovery behavior of the material. This paper presents the testing techniques used to characterize the thermomechanical material properties of a shape memory polymer (SMP) and also presents the resulting data. An innovative visual-photographic apparatus, known as a Vision Image Correlation (VIC) system was used to measure the strain. The details of this technique will also be presented in this paper. A series of tensile tests were performed on specimens such that strain levels of 10, 25, 50, and 100% were applied to the material while it was above its glass transition temperature. After deforming the material to a specified applied strain, the material was then cooled to below the glass transition temperature (Tg) while retaining the deformed shape. Finally, the specimen was heated again to above the transition temperature, and the resulting shape recovery profile was measured. Results show that strain recovery occurs at a nonlinear rate with respect to time. Results also indicate that the ratio of recoverable strain/applied strain increases as the applied strain increases

Crack Growth Behavior in NiTi Shape Memory Alloys Under Mode-I Isothermal Loading: Effect of Stress State

Fracture behavior in nickel-titanium (NiTi) shape memory alloys (SMAs) subjected to mode-I, isothermal loading is studied using finite element analysis (FEA). Compact tension (CT) SMA specimen is modeled in Abaqus finite element suite and crack growth under displacement boundary condition is investigated for plane strain and plane stress conditions. Parameters for the SMA material constitutive law implemented in the finite element setup are acquired from characterization tests conducted on near-equiatomic NiTi SMA. Virtual crack closure technique (VCCT) is implemented where crack is assumed to extend when the energy release rate at the crack-tip becomes equal to the experimentally obtained material-specific critical value. Load-displacement curves and mechanical fields near the crack-tip in plane strain and plane stress cases are examined. Moreover, a discussion with respect to the crack resistance R-curves calculated using the load-displacement response for plane strain and plane stress conditions is presented

Simplified shape memory alloy (SMA) material model for vibration isolation,

ABSTRACT Advances in smart materials and structures technology, especially in applications of Shape Memory Alloys (SMA) as actuators and vibration isolation devices require understanding of the nonlinear hysteretic response found in SMAs. SMA hysteresis can be modeled either through constitutive models based on physical material parameters or through models based on system identification. In this work, a simplified material model for the pseudoelastic response of SMAs is presented, suitable for vibration isolation applications. Response obtained from the simplified model is compared with the response obtained from an existing thermodynamic constitutive SMA model and the results from the two models are found to match well. The computation time required by the simplified model was approximately seven times faster compared with the thermodynamic constitutive model. The simplified model is utilized to simulate a single degree of freedom mass-SMA system where the SMA acts as a passive vibration isolation device, showing a substantial reduction in displacement transmissibility

Nonlinear dynamics of a SMA large-scale space structure

Large-scale structures are of special interest of aerospace applications, especially the ones involving smart materials. This paper deals with an archetypal system with two degrees of freedom that resembles the use of SMA elements as vibration isolation systems on a sparse aperture satellite array. The system has SMA elements in two perpendicular directions connected to a mass. Each SMA element is connected to a base structure. Imperfections are represented by establishing a comparison between two different systems: ideal and perturbed configuration system. The perturbed configuration is characterized by a situation where all SMA elements are in a stress-free state. The thermomechanical behavior of SMA elements is described by a constitutive model with internal constrains. Numerical tests of this system are of concern showing its general dynamical behavior. Periodic and chaotic motions are investigated showing the complex behaviors of this kind of system. The effect of imperfection in system dynamics is also discussed

Experiment Design Frameworks for Accelerated Discovery of Targeted Materials Across Scales

Over the last decade, there has been a paradigm shift away from labor-intensive and time-consuming materials discovery methods, and materials exploration through informatics approaches is gaining traction at present. Current approaches are typically centered around the idea of achieving this exploration through high-throughput (HT) experimentation/computation. Such approaches, however, do not account for the practicalities of resource constraints which eventually result in bottlenecks at various stage of the workflow. Regardless of how many bottlenecks are eliminated, the fact that ultimately a human must make decisions about what to do with the acquired information implies that HT frameworks face hard limits that will be extremely difficult to overcome. Recently, this problem has been addressed by framing the materials discovery process as an optimal experiment design problem. In this article, we discuss the need for optimal experiment design, the challenges in it's implementation and finally discuss some successful examples of materials discovery via experiment design

Micromechanics Modeling of Functionally Graded Interphase Regions in Carbon Nanotube-Polymer Composites

The effective elastic properties of a unidirectional carbon fiber/epoxy lamina in which the carbon fibers are coated with single-walled carbon nanotubes are modeled herein through the use of a multi-scale method involving the molecular dynamics/equivalent continuum and micromechanics methods. The specific lamina representative volume element studied consists of a carbon fiber surrounded by a region of epoxy containing a radially varying concentration of carbon nanotubes which is then embedded in the pure epoxy matrix. The variable concentration of carbon nanotubes surrounding the carbon fiber results in a functionally graded interphase region as the properties of the interphase region vary according to the carbon nanotube volume fraction. Molecular dynamics and equivalent continuum methods are used to assess the local effective properties of the carbon nanotube/epoxy comprising the interphase region. Micromechanics in the form of the Mori-Tanaka method are then applied to obtain the global effective properties of the graded interphase region wherein the carbon nanotubes are randomly oriented. Finally, the multi-layer composite cylinders micromechanics approach is used to obtain the effective lamina properties from the lamina representative volume element. It was found that even very small quantities of carbon nanotubes (0.36% of lamina by volume) coating the surface of the carbon fibers in the lamina can have a significant effect (8% increase) on the transverse properties of the lamina (E22, k23, G23 and G12) with almost no affect on the lamina properties in the fiber direction (E11 and v12)

Influence of Test Procedures on the Thermomechanical Properties of a 55NiTi Shape Memory Alloy

Over the past few decades, binary NiTi shape memory alloys have received attention due to their unique mechanical characteristics, leading to their potential use in low-temperature, solid-state actuator applications. However, prior to using these materials for such applications, the physical response of these systems to mechanical and thermal stimuli must be thoroughly understood and modeled to aid designers in developing SMA-enabled systems. Even though shape memory alloys have been around for almost five decades, very little effort has been made to standardize testing procedures. Although some standards for measuring the transformation temperatures of SMA s are available, no real standards exist for determining the various mechanical and thermomechanical properties that govern the usefulness of these unique materials. Consequently, this study involved testing a 55NiTi alloy using a variety of different test methodologies. All samples tested were taken from the same heat and batch to remove the influence of sample pedigree on the observed results. When the material was tested under constant-stress, thermal-cycle conditions, variations in the characteristic material responses were observed, depending on test methodology. The transformation strain and irreversible strain were impacted more than the transformation temperatures, which only showed an affect with regard to applied external stress. In some cases, test methodology altered the transformation strain by 0.005-0.01mm/mm, which translates into a difference in work output capability of approximately 2 J/cu cm (290 in!lbf/cu in). These results indicate the need for the development of testing standards so that meaningful data can be generated and successfully incorporated into viable models and hardware. The use of consistent testing procedures is also important when comparing results from one research organization to another. To this end, differences in the observed responses will be presented, contrasted and rationalized, in hopes of eventually developing standardized testing procedures for shape memory alloys

Analytic and computational micromechanics of clustering and interphase effects in carbon nanotube composites.

Effective elastic properties for carbon nanotube reinforced composites are obtained through a variety of micromechanics techniques. Using the in-plane elastic properties of graphene, the effective properties of carbon nanotubes are calculated utilizing a composite cylinders micromechanics technique as a first step in a two-step process. These effective properties are then used in the self-consistent and Mori-Tanaka methods to obtain effective elastic properties of composites consisting of aligned single or multi-walled carbon nanotubes embedded in a polymer matrix. Effective composite properties from these averaging methods are compared to a direct composite cylinders approach extended from the work of Hashin and Rosen (1964) and Christensen and Lo (1979). Comparisons with finite element simulations are also performed. The effects of an interphase layer between the nanotubes and the polymer matrix as result of functionalization is also investigated using a multi-layer composite cylinders approach. Finally, the modeling of the clustering of nanotubes into bundles due to interatomic forces is accomplished herein using a tessellation method in conjunction with a multi-phase Mori-Tanaka technique. In addition to aligned nanotube composites, modeling of the effective elastic properties of randomly dispersed nanotubes into a matrix is performed using the Mori-Tanaka method, and comparisons with experimental data are made. Computational micromechanical analysis of high-stiffness hollow fiber nanocomposites is performed using the finite element method. The high-stiffness hollow fibers are modeled either directly as isotropic hollow tubes or equivalent transversely isotropic effective solid cylinders with properties computed using a micromechanics based composite cylinders method. Using a representative volume element for clustered high-stiffness hollow fibers embedded in a compliant matrix with the appropriate periodic boundary conditions, the effective elastic properties are obtained from the finite element results. These effective elastic properties are compared to approximate analytical results found using micromechanics methods. The effects of an interphase layer between the high-stiffness hollow fibers and matrix to simulate imperfect load transfer and/or functionalization of the hollow fibers is also investigated and compared to a multi-layer composite cylinders approach. Finally the combined effects of clustering with fiber-matrix interphase regions are studied. The parametric studies performed herein were motivated by and used properties for single-walled carbon nanotubes embedded in an epoxy matrix, and as such are intended to serve as a guide for continuum level representations of such nanocomposites in a multi-scale modeling approach