Developing hybrid polymer composites with embedded shape-memory alloy wires

Adaptive composites integrate actuating and sensing materials into a struct ural material (e.g., the integration of thin shape-memory alloy [SMA] wires can function as actuating elements in to fiber-reinforced polymer composit es). SMA composites can open new perspectives on the development of enginee ring structures and devices with adaptive shape, stiffness, damping, and ot her properties. Materials design involving the constitutive modeling of SMA composite thermomechanical responses is a key topic in the development of the adaptive composites. As such, example simulation results obtained using a recently developed composite model are presented.