Stability and thermal characteristic of Bi-Stable Composite Plates in asymmetric angle ply laminates by considering the effects of resin layers and temperature dependency

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. In this study, the stability characteristics and thermal response of a bistable composite plate with different asymmetric composition were considered. The non-linear finite element method (FEM) was utilized to determine the response of the laminate. Attention was focused on the temperature dependency of laminate mechanical properties, especially on the thermal expansion coefficients of the composite graphite-epoxy plate. Also the effect of including the resin layers on the stability characteristics of the laminate was investigated. The effect of the temperature on the laminate cured configurations in the range of 25°C to 180°C was examined. The results indicate that the coefficient of thermal expansions has a major effect on the cured shapes. Next, optical microscopy was used to characterize the laminate composition and for the first time the effect of including the resin layers on the actuation loads that causes snapping behavior between two stable shapes was studied. The results obtained from the finite element simulations were compared with experimental results and a good correlation was obtained.