Simulation of shape memory alloy based curved structures using isogeometric analysis

Shape Memory Alloys are well known for the large strain recovery capabilities, leading to extensive applications in biomedical, aerospace, automobile industries, and robotics. In most of the biomedical applications, the SMA based structures are complex in geometry and thus require an efficient computational tool to analyze their thermo-mechanical behavior. In this work, an Isogeometric Analysis based tool has been developed to simulate the thermo-mechanical response of Shape Memory Alloy based planar curved structures, undergoing large deformation. Several benchmark problems are simulated and the results are compared with the literature to show the effectiveness of the proposed method. It is observed that with the proposed tool, the SMA based curved structures can be analyzed accurately with fewer degrees of freedom and thus requiring lesser computational time, as compared to the same of traditional FEM. The developed tool will address the present need and will be helpful in minimizing the design, analysis and redesign time.