Title: Shape-memory alloys: effective 3D modelling, computational aspects and design of devices

Authors: F. Auricchio, A. Reali, A. Tardugno

Addresses: Dipartimento di Meccanica Strutturale, Universita degli Studi di Pavia, Via Ferrata 1, Pavia (PV), 27100, Italy. ' Dipartimento di Meccanica Strutturale, Universita degli Studi di Pavia, Via Ferrata 1, Pavia (PV), 27100, Italy. ' Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, Royal School of Mines Building, South Kensington Campus, London, SW7 2 AZ, UK

Abstract: The employment of shape-memory alloys (SMA) in a large number of applications in many fields of engineering, among which biomedical engineering, has been the motivation for an increasing interest in the direction of a correct and exhaustive modelling of their macroscopic behaviour in order to construct reliable simulation tools, which can be successfully used in the design procedures of SMA devices. In this paper, we review a robust three-dimensional model giving a good description of pseudo-elastic and shape-memory behaviours and we use it for the development of a new design procedure of SMA micro-actuators. Starting from a SMA micro-device proposed in the literature, we then adopt such a procedure to design a new effective variant of micro-gripper.

Keywords: shape memory alloys; 3D modelling; SMA device design; microactuators; microgrippers; microdevices; gripper design; actuator design.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCMSSE.2010.033154

International Journal of Computational Materials Science and Surface Engineering, 2010 Vol.3 No.2/3, pp.199 - 223

Published online: 10 May 2010 *

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