Experimental and micromechanics characterization of shape memory alloy short wires reinforced epoxy resin

Shape memory alloys (SMAs), recently are used extensively to enhance mechanical properties of composite materials. In the present paper incremental micromechanics model based on Eshelbyʹs equivalent inclusion and Halpin-Tsai model is developed for prediction the elastic properties of randomly oriented SMA/epoxy composites, considering stress-temperature dependence behavior of SMA. Experimental tensile tests on SMA/epoxy composites were also performed in order to verify the micro mechanics results. For obtaining the mechanical properties of super elastic SMA, unidirectional tensile test was performed on wires initially. The micromechanics results showed good agreement with the experimental data at low weight fractions of SMA wires. However, at higher weight fractions of SMA wires, the model overestimates the Youngʹs modulus of the composite. This is due to the effect of the interface between SMA wires and epoxy resin which is assumed to be perfectly bonded in the micromechanics model. The detailed analysis and results are presented in the full length paper.