Experimental Study on Variable Deflection Control of SMA Actuated Composite Plate

This paper presents a variable deflection control of a fiber glass composite plate system using shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators. The technique on changing the camber of plate needs to be developed as it is the most investigated approach of shape morphing. Gradual changes of the camber along the span can create controllable twisting of the composite plate. The necessary camber change is pursued either by reconfiguration of the underlying structure or the shape changing of the composite plate or smart composite. In this proposed platform, strain gauges are used to measure the strain of the plate in a single cantilever mode while nickel titanium (NiTi) Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) wires are used as actuators to actuate the composite plate, which are controlled using Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller. In this research six strain gauges were placed at different location of the plate: tip, mid and root part of the plate. From the experimental result, it was found that the mid part of the plate had the highest change in strain value and the control system using input from the strain gauge located there produced the best performance compared to those located at the tip and root of the plate.