Study on the effect of phase transformation of a shape memory alloy on post-buckled restoring force characteristics

Abstract

To develop a vibration isolator for the vertical direction using a post-buckled shape memory alloy (SMA), it is important to understand the restoring force and the mechanism of the negative stiffness characteristics of a post-buckled SMA beam. In this study, we investigated the relationship between the restoring force characteristics and the phase transformation of a post-buckled thin plate SMA beam. The Finite Element Analysis was used for the investigation. As a result, we confirmed a qualitative correlation between the restoring force characteristics and the volume fraction of the phase transformed SMA material.