Overview and Future Advanced Engineering Applications for Morphing Surfaces by Shape Memory Alloy Materials

Abstract

The development of structures able to autonomously change their characteristics in response to an external simulation is considered a promising research field. Indeed, these structures, called smart structures, can be adopted to improve the aerodynamic performance of air and land vehicles. In this work, an overview and future applications of Shape Memory Alloys (SMA)-based smart structures are presented. The use of SMA materials seems to be very promising in several engineering sectors. Advanced SMA-based devices, designed to improve the aerodynamic performance of vehicles by modifying the shape of the spoiler and the rear upper panel, are briefly introduced and discussed in this paper. Indeed, a simplified model simulating the SMA mechanical behavior has been considered to demonstrate the feasibility of the introduced smart structures for adaptive aerodynamic applications. Numerical simulations of the investigated structures are provided as a justification of the proposed designs.