A simulation study on the thermal buckling behavior of laminated compositeshells with embedded shape memory alloy (SMA) wires

In this paper, numerical simulation analyses of the thermal buckling behavi or of laminated composite shells with embedded shape memory alloy (SMA) wir es were performed to investigate the effect of embedded SMA wires on the ch aracteristics of thermal buckling. In order to simulate the thermomechanica l behavior of SMA wires, the constitutive equation of the SMA wires was for mulated ill the form of an ABAQUS user subroutine. The computational progra m was verified by showing the response of the pseudoelasticity and shape me mory effect (SME) at various temperatures and stress levels. Modeling of th e laminated composite shells with embedded SMA wires and thermal buckling a nalyses were performed with the use of the ABAQUS code linked with the subr outine of the formulated SMA constitutive equations. The thermal buckling a nalyses of the composite shells with embedded SMA wires show that the criti cal buckling temperature can be increased and the thermal buckling deformat ion can be decreased by using the activation force of embedded SMA wire act uators. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.