TY - JOUR

T1 - Investigations on the dynamic snap-through of MFC bonded self-resetting bistable laminates

AU - Anilkumar, P. M.

AU - Scheffler, S.

AU - Haldar, A.

AU - Jansen, E. L.

AU - Rao, B. N.

AU - Rolfes, R.

N1 - Funding Information: Authors would like to acknowledge Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship (PMRF) scheme - India and the German Academic Exchange Service: Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) , for the research grant on Doctoral Degrees during the course of first author’s doctoral research. The authors gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments and discussions with Dr.-Ing. Martin Brod, Mr. Oliver Dorn, and Mr. Jens Breyer during the preparation of the manuscript.

PY - 2024/3/15

Y1 - 2024/3/15

N2 - Unsymmetric composite laminates having two stable equilibrium configurations have been studied extensively in the recent past due to their potential applications in morphing structures. Surface bonded Macro Fiber Composites (MFC) actuators have been considered as a viable solution to trigger the snap-through transition in bistable laminates. Although MFC bonded bistable laminates are widely used in morphing applications, they might require considerably high voltage inputs to achieve the required levels of actuation control during the shape transition. As a solution, other possible energy sources can be combined with active MFC patches to reduce the snap-through energy required from the single source of MFC actuation. In this work, we examine the dynamic behavior of bistable composite plates actuated using MFC actuators, where external vibration energy has been used to assist with the MFC-controlled actuation between stable states. A refined semi-analytical model based on the Rayleigh–Ritz formulation has been proposed, where the membrane energy and the bending energy are separately evaluated. Bending components are directly evaluated using the approximated transverse displacement functions, whereas the membrane components are evaluated separately by combining compatibility conditions and equilibrium equations. Results from the proposed semi-analytical framework are compared with a full geometrically nonlinear finite element framework and necessary experimental observations. The results show a significant reduction in the snap-through energy demand on MFC layers where external dynamic excitation assists the snap-through process. Additionally, a parametric study is performed using variable stiffness (VS) fiber orientation parameters, achieving bistable laminate-MFC configurations that lower snap-through requirements through the proposed morphing strategy. Thus, the study offers to aid a multi-efficient snap-through strategy for the morphing of multistable composite structures.

AB - Unsymmetric composite laminates having two stable equilibrium configurations have been studied extensively in the recent past due to their potential applications in morphing structures. Surface bonded Macro Fiber Composites (MFC) actuators have been considered as a viable solution to trigger the snap-through transition in bistable laminates. Although MFC bonded bistable laminates are widely used in morphing applications, they might require considerably high voltage inputs to achieve the required levels of actuation control during the shape transition. As a solution, other possible energy sources can be combined with active MFC patches to reduce the snap-through energy required from the single source of MFC actuation. In this work, we examine the dynamic behavior of bistable composite plates actuated using MFC actuators, where external vibration energy has been used to assist with the MFC-controlled actuation between stable states. A refined semi-analytical model based on the Rayleigh–Ritz formulation has been proposed, where the membrane energy and the bending energy are separately evaluated. Bending components are directly evaluated using the approximated transverse displacement functions, whereas the membrane components are evaluated separately by combining compatibility conditions and equilibrium equations. Results from the proposed semi-analytical framework are compared with a full geometrically nonlinear finite element framework and necessary experimental observations. The results show a significant reduction in the snap-through energy demand on MFC layers where external dynamic excitation assists the snap-through process. Additionally, a parametric study is performed using variable stiffness (VS) fiber orientation parameters, achieving bistable laminate-MFC configurations that lower snap-through requirements through the proposed morphing strategy. Thus, the study offers to aid a multi-efficient snap-through strategy for the morphing of multistable composite structures.

KW - Bistable composites

KW - Dynamic modeling

KW - Finite element analysis

KW - MFC actuators

KW - Semi-analytical models

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85183998603&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.compstruct.2024.117906

DO - 10.1016/j.compstruct.2024.117906

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85183998603

VL - 332

JO - Composite structures

JF - Composite structures

SN - 0263-8223

M1 - 117906

ER -