Finite element analysis of 2D SMA beam bending

A thermomechanical model of a shape memory alloy beam bending under tip force loading is implemented in finite element codes. The constitutive model is a one dimensional model which is based on free energy and motivated by statistical thermodynamics. The particular focus of this paper is on the aspects of finite element modeling and simulation of the inhomogeneous beam bending problem. This paper extends previous work which is based on the small deformation Euler-Bernoulli beam theory and by treating an SMA beam as consisting of multi-layers in a two-dimensional model. The flux terms are involved in the heat transfer equation. The simulations can represent both shape memory effect and super-elastic behavior. Different thermal boundary condition effect and load rate effect can also be captured.