Multi-Functional Soft Smart Materials and their Applications

2011 ◽  
Vol 410 ◽  
pp. 25-25
Author(s):  
Jin Song Leng

Stimulus-active polymers can change their shapes with respect to configuration or dimension upon exposure to a particular stimulus such as heat, electricity, light, magnetic, solvent and pH value. These unique characteristics enable stimulus-active polymers to be used in a myriad of fields, including clothing manufacturing, automobile engineering, medical treatment, and aerospace engineering. Stimulus-active polymers can be applied in smart textiles and apparels, intelligent medical instruments and auxiliaries, artificial muscles, biomimetic devices, heat shrinkable materials for electronics packaging, micro-electro-mechanical systems, self-deployable sun sails in spacecrafts, miniature manipulator, actuators and sensors, and many more. This paper presents some recent progress of soft smart materials and their applications. Special emphasis is focused upon shape memory polymer (SMP), electro-active polymer (EAP) for aerospace engineering such as space deployable structures and morphing aircraft, which has highlighted the need for development of these materials. A detailed overview of development in these smart soft materials, of which the undergoing and future applications are used in adaptive structures and active control, is presented. The paper concludes with a short discussion for multi-functional soft smart materials and their composites that are expected to extend the range of development and applications available to the related researches and engineers.

Molecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (18) ◽  
pp. 4246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yujie Chen ◽  
Chi Chen ◽  
Hafeez Ur Rehman ◽  
Xu Zheng ◽  
Hua Li ◽  
...  

Shape-memory materials are smart materials that can remember an original shape and return to their unique state from a deformed secondary shape in the presence of an appropriate stimulus. This property allows these materials to be used as shape-memory artificial muscles, which form a subclass of artificial muscles. The shape-memory artificial muscles are fabricated from shape-memory polymers (SMPs) by twist insertion, shape fixation via Tm or Tg, or by liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs). The prepared SMP artificial muscles can be used in a wide range of applications, from biomimetic and soft robotics to actuators, because they can be operated without sophisticated linkage design and can achieve complex final shapes. Recently, significant achievements have been made in fabrication, modelling, and manipulation of SMP-based artificial muscles. This paper presents a review of the recent progress in shape-memory polymer-based artificial muscles. Here we focus on the mechanisms of SMPs, applications of SMPs as artificial muscles, and the challenges they face concerning actuation. While shape-memory behavior has been demonstrated in several stimulated environments, our focus is on thermal-, photo-, and electrical-actuated SMP artificial muscles.


2013 ◽  
Vol 745 ◽  
pp. 129-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jin Song Leng

Smart materials can be defined as the materials that have the capability of sensing and reacting to environmental conditions or stimuli. In recent years, a wide range of novel smart materials have been developed, the applications of which now cover various important fields including aerospace, automobile, telecommunications, and so forth. This talk mainly focuses on recent progresses of Active Moving Polymer (i.e. Shape Memory Polymer, SMP), and SMP based composite structures, as well as their applications including aerospace, astronautics and biomedical engineering. This presented work summarizes the recent advances in novel SMP including epoxy-based SMP, styrene-based SMP, cyanate ester-based SMP, polyurethane-based SMP, multiple SMP, design and characterization of SMP composites (SMPCs) filled with nickel chains, short carbon fiber, carbon nanotube chains, carbon nanopaper, and so on. The SMP stimulus methods, including heat, electric, light, magnetic field, and solvent have been introduced. The application of SMPCs used in aircraft morphing and space deployable structures is also investigated.


2016 ◽  
Vol 97 ◽  
pp. 93-99
Author(s):  
Jin Lian Hu ◽  
Harishkumar Narayana

Materials, structures and systems, responsive to an external stimulus are smart and adaptive to our human demands. Among smart materials, polymers with shape memory effect are at the forefront of research leading to comprehensive publications and wide applications. In this paper, we extend the concept of shape memory polymers to stress memory ones, which have been discovered recently. Like shape memory, stress memory represents a phenomenon where the stress in a polymer can be programmed, stored and retrieved reversibly with an external stimulus such as temperature and magnetic field. Stress memory may be mistaken as the recovery stress which was studied quite broadly. Our further investigation also reveals that stress memory is quite different from recovery stress containing multi-components including elastic and viscoelastic forces in addition to possible memory stress. Stress memory could be used into applications such as sensors, pressure garments, massage devices, electronic skins and artificial muscles. The current revelation of stress memory potentials is emanated from an authentic application of memory fibres, films, and foams in the smart compression devices for the management of chronic and therapeutic disorders.


Author(s):  
L. Santo ◽  
L. Iorio ◽  
G. M. Tedde ◽  
F. Quadrini

Shape Memory Polymer Composites (SMPCs) are smart materials showing the structural properties of long-fiber polymer-matrix together with the functional behavior of shape memory polymers. In this study, SM carbon fiber reinforced (CFR) composites have been produced by using a SM interlayer between two CFR prepregs. Their SM properties have been evaluated in comparison with traditional structural CFR composites without the SM interlayer by using an especially designed test. Active and frozen forces are measured during a thermo-mechanical cycle in the three-point bending configuration. Experimental results show that SMPCs are able to fix a temporary deformed shape by freezing high stresses.


2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (10) ◽  
pp. 1243-1283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ebrahim Yarali ◽  
Ali Taheri ◽  
Mostafa Baghani

Shape memory polymers are a class of smart materials, which are capable of fixing their deformed shapes, and can return to their original shape in reaction to external stimulus such as heat. Also due to their exceptional properties, they are mostly used in four-dimensional printing applications. To model and investigate thermomechanical response of shape memory polymers mathematically, several constitutive equations have been developed over the past two decades. The purpose of this research is to provide an up-to-date review on structures, classifications, applications of shape memory polymers, and constitutive equations of thermally responsive shape memory polymers and their composites. First, a comprehensive review on the properties, structure, and classifications of shape memory polymers is conducted. Then, the proposed models in the literature are presented and discussed, which, particularly, are focused on the phase transition and thermo-viscoelastic approaches for conventional, two-way as well as multi-shape memory polymers. Then, a statistical analysis on constitutive relations of thermally activated shape memory polymers is carried out. Finally, we present a summary and give some concluding remarks, which could be helpful in selection of a suitable shape memory polymer constitutive model under a typical application.


Author(s):  
Fei Liang ◽  
Jihua Gou ◽  
He Shen ◽  
Yunjun Xu ◽  
Bob Mabbott

Shape memory polymers (SMPs) are one of the most popular smart materials due to light weight and high elastic deformation capability. In this study, highly conductive carbon nanofibers paper (CNFP) was coated on the surface of SMP as a conductive layer for electro actuation of SMP. To overcome the drawback of low modulus and low strength of shape memory polymer (SMP), continuous carbon fiber reinforcement was also incorporated with SMP by autoclave processing. The dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) result showed over 600% increase of storage modulus of SMP by introducing carbon fiber reinforcement. Also, the shape recovery time of SMP has been reduced over 150%, while the recovery ratio of SMP has been improved to 99% by incorporating with carbon fiber reinforcement. Additionally, the mechanical property degradation of SMP composites has been investigated after different electro actuation cycles. After 50 actuation cycles, the decrease of flexural modulus of SMP composites is negligible (< 2%), and the ultimate flexural strength of SMP composites only decreased 25%. The SMP composite shows high strength and modulus, and good durability.


2013 ◽  
Vol 721 ◽  
pp. 169-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Gu ◽  
Shao Xiong Li

The viscoelastic behaviors of shape memory polymers have a significant influence on the function realization of this kind of smart materials. In this study, stress-strain hysteresis under uniaxial tension of epoxy shape memory polymers with varied curing agent contents and types were tested at different temperatures. The effects of the testing temperature, curing-agent type and content on the viscoelastic behaviors of the materials were discussed.


2011 ◽  
Vol 287-290 ◽  
pp. 2756-2759 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Jun Zhou ◽  
Fu Ling Guan ◽  
Li Feng Qian

In this paper, the advantages of smart materials and structures are introduced. Because of the influence of friction, it’s difficult to deploy the large ring truss antenna driving by cable. The SPMC hinge is added in the deployable joint, the deployable antenna is deployed by heating the material to cause recovery strain, which substitutes for the driving by cable. Describe the behavior of SPMC material, and do the simulation, from the analysis results, we can aim that the stress of SPMC satisfies the yielding stress when the node is furled. At the same time, the force to expand the antenna caused by heating SPMC is also obtained. Compared the different size of width, the variation of recovery force can be got.


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