The static and buckling characteristics of flexible fiberglass NITINOL
-reinforced composite plates are controlled by activating optimal sets
of NITINOL fibers embedded along the mid-plane of these plates. The N
ITINOL fibers are pre-tensioned and activated to generate significant
phase recovery forces in order to increase the membrane strain energy
which in turn increases the critical buckling load of the NITINOL-rein
forced plates. With such control capabilities, the plates can be manuf
actured from light weight sections without compromising their elastic
stability. This feature is invaluable in building light weight structu
res that have high resistance to failure due to buckling. The NITINOL
fibers are trained to memorize the shape of the unbuckled plate and wh
en the plate is deflected under the action of external compressive loa
ds, the controller activates the NITINOL fibers by heating them above
their transformation temperature. The generated phase recovery forces
bring the plate back to its memorized undeflected position. A finite e
lement model of NITINOL-reinforced plates is developed to describe the
interaction between the external loads, operating conditions and the
geometrical and physical parameters of the composite plate and the NIT
INOL fibers. This model predicts the critical buckling loads of NITINO
L-reinforced plates. The predicted loads are compared with results ava
ilable in the literature for symmetrically isotropic, orthotropic and
anisotropic laminates. The mathematical model described in this paper
provides an invaluable means of predicting realistic performance of NI
TINOL-reinforced composites.