Aeroelastic behavior of composite laminated shells with embedded SMA wires under supersonic flow

This work investigates the aeroelastic stability boundary of flutter in Shape Memory Alloy Hybrid Composite laminates (SMAHC). The SMAHC consists of SMAs wires and continuous carbon fibers embedded into a polymeric matrix resulting in a three constituent composite material. The derivation of the effective mechanical properties of the SMAHC is based on micromechanical model which accounts for temperature and fraction of martensite/austenite transformation phases of the shape memory alloy. Hamilton's principle is used for the formulation of the energy functional and to obtain the equilibrium equations and boundary conditions of the aeroelastic problem. The finite element method is employed to numerically solve the equations. Different geometric configuration, laminate stacking sequence, boundary conditions and curvatures are investigated. The study shows that the stiffening effect induced by the changes in the fraction of martensite/austenite transformation phases of the shape memory alloy increases the rate of occurrence of flutter, stabilizing the plate. Thus, one can control the occurrence of flutter speed by controlling the temperature of the SMA wires and the proper design of the geometric properties of the panel and tailoring of the composite laminate.