Numerical simulation of the mechanical behaviour of shape memory alloys based actuators

In the last decades, the interest in Shape Memory Alloys (SMA) materials has been considerably increased due to their peculiar morphing capabilities, which can be relevant for many different engineering fields such as automotive and aerospace. Among the characteristics of shape memory alloys, their super-elastic behavior and their capability to recover an initial state, once a deformation has occurred, when subjected to a temperature above a predefined threshold, can be considered the most attractive ones. Possible applications of SMA includes, but are not limited to, switch actuators and morphing structures. In this work, the SMA materials super-elasticity effect and their capability to recover an initial state, due to the heating, are described and numerically reproduced by means of a user material routine implemented in the ABAQUS Standard FEM environment. A test-case representative of a mechanical actuator operated by SMA springs is introduced to assess the robustness of the developed numerical procedure for the simulation of Shape Memory Alloys material behavior.