An analytic investigation on behavior of smart devices consisting of reinforced shape memory polymer beams

In this paper, structural behavior of a shape memory polymer (SMP) actuator is analytically studied. This system consists of a reinforced SMP beam and a spring which will be attached to the beam in a part of thermomechanical shape memory effect (SME) cycle. The 3D phenomenological constitutive model for SMP composites, recently proposed by Baghani et al. (2012b), is used as the basis for the beam model employing the Euler–Bernoulli beam theory. We implement and study this model for a reinforced SMP beam undergoing different external transverse loadings, and also under different recovery conditions during heating, e.g., partial stress-strain recovery through utilizing a spring in the heating process. Consequently, the proposed analytical solution can be used as an efficient tool for studying the effects of changing any of the material or geometrical parameters on smart structures consisting of SMP composite beams and actuators for their design and optimization where a large number of simulations is involved.