Study of temperature-curvature relationships in Bi-stable Composite Laminates

The interest in bi-stable structures comes from their ability that these structures can have two different stable equilibrium configurations to define a discrete set of stable shapes. The geometrical changes occur with no need to continuously consume power, and mechanical hinges to preserve the structure in each stable shape.It is known that asymmetric composite laminates can have bi-stable response to different kind of loadings. In this research, the non-linear temperature-curvature relationship for the asymmetric composite laminates is studied using Rayleigh–Ritz technique. Attention is focused on studying the effect of material temperature dependency and resin layers; especially in the bifurcation point by use of analytical method. To this end, the well-known analytical theories are extended and used to consider the temperature dependency of material. The results obtained from the theory are then compared with the finite element simulations results and a good correlation is obtained. Finally, an experimental investigation is carried out and several specimens with [90/0]T, [70/–20]T and [70/20]T compositions were manufactured. In order to study the effect of resin layers, optical microscopy is utilized and the exact thickness of different layers in the manufactured specimens is determined. The thermal responses of the manufactured plates were measured and used to validate the results obtained from the analytical theory and finite element simulations