Fundamental characteristics and design method for nickel-titanium shape memory alloy

Shape memory alloys (SMA), because of their unique mechanical characteristics and shape memory effect (SME), have been widely used as force and displacement actuators in many fields [DUERING et al, 1990]. In the industrial applications, it is necessary not only to calculate the mechanical response of the actuator in terms of recovery force or deformation, but also to evaluate its temporal characteristics, i.e., the actuation and reset times. This paper presents the fundamental characteristics of SMA and a complete design model, which requires a close connection between three models: a mechanical model to predict the response of the actuator to a given temperature increment, a thermal model to compute the temperature change in the device, and a continuum-mechanical model to predict the martensite fraction on the SMA. The methodology is applied to a linear wire actuator