Viscoelastic effect on unfolding behaviors of shape memory composite booms

The viscoelastic time dependent unfolding behavior including structural nonlinearity of thin-walled shape memory composite booms are experimentally and numerically investigated. The shape memory composites are fabricated with woven fabric fibers and a resin of shape memory polymers (SMPs). The numerical model based on the elastic properties of the woven fabric fiber considering its actual fabric geometry and the shape memory and viscoelastic properties of the SMP resin is developed. A thin-walled cylindrical boom, which can be flexibly folded to an arbitrary configuration and be autonomous deployable, is fabricated using shape memory composites. While the boom is unfolding at elevated temperature, the shape memory, and the viscoelastic behaviors are investigated for their application in self-deployable structures.