EXPERIMENTAL-STUDY AND MODELING OF A TINI SHAPE-MEMORY ALLOY WIRE ACTUATOR

Shape memory alloys (SMA) are often used as actuators in miniature art iculated devices. In this paper, a single TiNi SMA wire loaded by a ma ss is studied as a basic actuator controlled by Joule's effect. First, we describe an experimental study of the wire (150 mu m in diameter) under coupled stress and temperature actions for different thermal inp ut velocities in order to analyze its dynamical behavior. In the case of static loadings, modeling is performed with a macroscopic descripti on of the thermomechanical behavior preformed by Leclercq and Lexcelle nt (1996). Then, the heat equation integration is sufficient to take i nto account the thermal input velocities. Comparison between experimen t and modeling is fairly correct.