Analyses of behaviors of a shape-memory-alloy torque tube actuator

Shape memory alloys (SMAs) are smart materials. The unique characteristics of SMAs enable the production of large force and displacement. Hence, SMAs can be used in many applications such as in actuators and active structural acoustic controllers; the SMAs can also be used for dynamic tuning and shape control. A SMA torque tube actuator consisting of SMA tubes and superelastic springs is proposed, and the behaviors of the actuator are investigated. From the results of heat transfer analysis, it is proved that the SMA torque tube actuator with both resistive heating of SMA itself and a separate conventional heating rod in the tube core has good performance. The behavior of an actuator system was analyzed by performing a contact analysis, and the twisting motion was noticed when checking the actuation. 3D SMA nonlinear constitutive equations were formulated numerically and implemented by performing a nonlinear analysis by using Abaqus UMAT.