Analysis of actuation characteristics of CuAlNiMn/Polyimide thin film shape memory alloy

Abstract

The article presents the study of the deformation of an SMA bimorph actuator during static heating. The thermomechanical behavior of thin film CuAlNiMn shape memory alloy (SMA) on polyimide substrate is analyzed using finite element method. The analysis is carried out for three different geometries to obtain the displacement when temperature is varied. The actuation characteristics of the SMA bimorph are studied through direct heating and joule heating techniques. The surface morphology and composition of the bimorph sample are obtained using the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The numerical analysis of the thermomechanical behavior of a thin film CuAlNiMn SMA bimorph is carried out using the finite element method. The procedure is applied for a double-legged cantilever configuration of the bimorph to obtain the actuation in terms of displacement; by varying the temperature. The same is repeated for semi-circular and pentagon shapes of the bimorph to obtain the influence of area on the displacement. It is observed that SMA bimorph displaces with the rise in temperature and the magnitude of displacement increases with the increase in surface area of different geometries. The physical actuation characteristic of CuAlNiMn-polyamide bimorph is studied by thermal heating and electrical heating of the sample, which confirm the shape memory effect of the SMA and provide the displacement characteristics of the bimorph when applying an electrical current.