Vibration Characteristics of Composite Plate Embedded with Shape Memory Alloy at Elevated Temperature

Abstract

Unique functional material of shape memory alloy has attracted tremendous interest from researches, thus has been broadly investigated for a wide range application. Current research effort extends the use of SMA for the design of smart composite structures due to its shape memory effect, pseudo-elasticity and high damping capability. This paper presents an assessment of applications of the SMA materials for structural vibration controls, where the influences of SMA as reinforcement in the composite plate at different temperature are investigated. Four cases of composite plate are studied, which two of them are SMA-based composite fabricated at 0° and 45° angles, and the other two plates are neat (without SMA wires) and built with local stiffener. By using modal testing, the free vibration analysis is carried out to determine the vibration characteristics of composite plates. The results show that infusing SMA wires into composites increased the natural frequencies of the plate considerably, while decreased slightly for damping percentage. However, when SMA wires are heated, the damping percentage improved tremendously due to the phase transformation temperature of SMA from martensite to austenite. The outcome of this study reveals the potential of SMA materials in active vibration control.