Impact analysis of strain-rate-dependent composite plates with SMA wires in thermal environments: Proposing refined coupled thermoelasticity, constitutive, and contact models

Effects of the strain-rate dependency of the elastic moduli of the composite and shape memory alloy (SMA) materials on responses of rectangular composite plates with embedded SMA wires subjected to impacts with spherical indenters is considered in the present research, for the first time. The plates are assumed to be placed in thermal environments; so that in contrast to all the available researches, the shape memory and ferroelasticity effects are also taken into account in addition to the superelasticity. The governing equations are derived based on a proposed enhanced phase version free energy function and refined constitutive equations with coupled expressions and solved by a virtual-work-type Galerkin-based finite element method. The resulting highly non-linear and piecewise-defined governing equations are solved through using biquadratic rectangular elements, an iterative solution scheme, and a special phase transformation tracing algorithm. Hertz contact law is also revised accordingly based on a proper micromechanical model. Results are obtained for a range of ambient temperatures that are either lower or higher than the austenite start temperature. Results show that complex combinations of the strain-rate dependency of the material properties, impact-induced temperature rise, and ambient temperature may significantly affect the phase transformation phenomenon and the non-linear impact responses.