The primary goal of the Consortium for the Advancement of Shape Memory Alloy Research and Technology (CASMART) is to enable the design of revolutionary applications based on shape memory alloy (SMA) technology. Currently, one of the major roadblocks for the integration of SMA-based actuation systems is the development cost. Therefore, the Design Working Group of CASMART has developed SMA actuator design tools for three common actuator types: wires, springs, and torque tubes.
Through this collaborative effort, engineering models and design experience from many CASMART members were used in the development of simple, accessible, and practical design tools.
One of the primary advantages of utilizing SMAs for actuation is their ability to be tailored to different applications: wire actuators offer relatively large actuation forces with simple implementation; SMA springs can achieve large actuation strokes exceeding 500% of the original length; and torque tube actuators can provide large actuation moments to deploy full-scale aerostructures or actuation rotation without applied torques. While the behavior of each of the three actuator types differs drastically on the component level, all three utilize the Shape Memory Effect (SME), and this is reflected in the modeling framework.
To make the design tools more accessible, they have a graphical user interface (GUI), and only require users to input material parameters that are usually provided by material producers, or that can be found in literature, or that can be found by basic mechanical testing.
To test accessibility, a series of case studies were presented to teams of undergraduate and graduate students through the 2015 CASMART Design Challenge. The students, even though unfamiliar with SMA technology, were able to successfully design complex wire, spring, and torque tube actuation systems and build functioning prototypes. Learn More.
These design tools will be made available to the 2017 CASMART Design Challenge teams, which will be held at SMST2017. Learn More.
Currently, the design tools are available upon request by emailing [email protected].
For more information, contact Othmane Benafan, CASMART executive chairman, at [email protected].
