Thermal cycling behaviors of a NiTiCu wire reinforced Kevlar/epoxy composite

Shape memory alloy (SMAs) composites are used as structural materials where adaptive functionality is necessary. Therefore the thermal cycling behavior of the SMA composites is an important aspect needs to be well understood. In this paper a NiTiCu wire reinforced Kevlar/epoxy composite was fabricated, and the As temperature at which the composite starts to build up recovery stress, recovery stress level, and the stress rate K during thermal cycling were examined. Results showed that the recovery stress level decreased, the As temperature and the K value increased with thermal cycling and stabilized after certain numbers of thermal cycle.