Induction heating of shape memory alloy components using liquid metal energy circuits for high bandwidth distributed actuation
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2017 International Center for Numerical Methods in Engineering. All rights reserved. Shape memory alloy (SMA) components are an important innovation to the design of various aerospace applications due to their high actuation work density and relative simplicity, making them ideal candidates for structurally embedded actuators. However, these thermally driven materials are unable to provide a rapid cyclic response compared to traditional actuators due to the difficulty of adding heat to and especially removing heat from large metallic bodies. Induction heating is widely used in metals production and processing to quickly increase temperature in a controlled manner, and can be integrated with SMA components to expedite the actuation process. One potential option for increased cyclic frequency in SMA actuators involves the use of integrated liquid metal energy circuits, whereby applying an alternating electric current to the liquid metal circuits results in the generation of eddy currents in the surrounding SMA material, delivering a large amount of thermal energy distributed throughout an SMA body via localized Joule heating. This work presents a multiphysical finite element model of a beam containing a liquid metal circuit and heated via localized induction heating. The results are compared to preliminary experimental results, which represent the first known demonstrations of an SMA component actuated via liquid metal energy circuits. The ability of the liquid metal circuits to act as an active cooling mechanism is also computationally demonstrated. The results of this work will be used to develop a parameterized optimization framework to discover actuator/circuit configurations that best improve cyclic response.
8th Conference on Smart Structures and Materials, SMART 2017 and 6th International Conference on Smart Materials and Nanotechnology in Engineering, SMN 2017
