Open Access

ARTICLE

A Three-Dimensional Constitutive Equation And Finite Element Method Implementation for Shape Memory Polymers

by Guanghui Shi¹, Qingsheng Yang¹, Xiaoqiao He³, Kim Meow Liew³

1 Department of Engineering Mechanics, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, PR China
2 Corresponding authors, E-mail: qsyang@bjut.edu.cn, Tel & Fax: 86-10-67396333(QS Yang).
3 Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong
4 Corresponding authors. E-mail: bcxqhe@cityu.edu.hk, Tel&Fax: 852-34424760 (XQ He).

Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences 2013, 90(5), 339-358. https://doi.org/10.3970/cmes.2013.090.339

Abstract

In order to describe the thermomechanical deformation and shape memory effect of shape memory polymers (SMPs), a three-dimensional thermomechanical constitutive model that considers elastic, viscoelastic strain and thermal expansion is proposed for isotropic SMPs. A three-dimensional finite element procedure is developed by implementing the proposed constitutive model into the user material subroutine (UMAT) in ABAQUS program. Numerical examples are used to compare it with existing experimental data in a one dimensional case and to demonstrate the thermomechanical behavior of SMPs with 3D deformation. It is shown that the present constitutive theory and the finite element method can effectively simulate the thermomechanical behavior and shape memory effect of SMPs under complicated deformation states.

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Keywords

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