Prediction and control of the Bi-stable functionally graded composites by temperature gradient field

Abstract

The bi-stable cylindrical composites, which are composed of the fiber-through-thickness variation functionally graded material (FGM) subjected to a temperature gradient field, studied in the paper. The advantages of both of the FGMs’ adaptability for the temperature field variation and the bi-stability of the un-symmetric and anti-symmetric orthogonal lay-ups are combined, the presented bi-stable structure has a potential application in many fields. The thermal-induced bi-stable FGM un-symmetric and anti-symmetric orthogonal shell is studied by the finite element analysis. The different FGM lay-ups are simulated successfully by the commercial finite element software ABAQUS and its subroutines. The curved shapes, the temperature-load history and stress distributions are also given to understand this bi-stable phenomenon.