Structural Integrity of Intelligent Materials and Structures

Shape memory alloys (SMA's) have been a major element of the intelligent materials and structures research effort, and actuators for the control of structures have been designed on the basis of their unique thermomechanical behavior. The design of SMA force and displacement actuators requires a fundamental knowledge of the behavior of these materials. There has been an extensive body of work focused on the development of constitutive models describing the thermomechanical response characteristics of SMA materials in monolithic form. Many applications, however, call for the embedding of SMA materials within structural components to sesnse and/or control the mechanical response of the structures. Very little work has addressed the mechanics of the interactions between the SMA elements and the host materials they are embedded within. consequently, a micromechanical approach to understanding the thermomechanical interactions between the embedded SMA and the host material is required and will be the focus of this work. The project will be performed with the technical assistance of Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Dr Craig Rogers).