Two‐way shape memory behavior of styrene‐based bilayer shape memory polymer plate

In this work, a bilayer shape memory polymer (SMP) composite plate with two-way shape memory behavior is simulated, in which two types of styrene-based SMPs with well-separated glass transition temperatures are assembled in parallel. The finite element (FE) software ABAQUS is selected to exhibit the two-way shape memory effect during the shape recovery step and the Generalized Maxwell Model with the WLF equation is applied to characterize the temperature-dependent properties of the SMP bilayer plates. The effect factors of axial predeformation, thermal expansion coefficient and plate thickness are all considered for the two-way shape memory behavior of the styrene-based bilayer SMP plate. After that, a smart gripper composed of four SMP composite plates is proposed to realize grabbing and releasing functions for one-step and staged heating recovery. The FE results provide some necessary theoretical guidelines for future soft smart structural designs and optimization.