Finite element simulation of thermal deformation in bi-stable cylindrical composite shells for morphing applications

Bi-stable composite structures have received special interest in morphing technology because they can take large deformations with energy only needed for snapping from one stable configuration to the other and once the new configuration is reached the energy can be removed. Deformation of a cylindrical carbon/epoxy composite cross ply shell under thermal load in the form of temperature difference is simulated using finite element software ABAQUS. Static general analysis is used for simulations with enabled option for nonlinear geometry due to large displacements. To avoid numerical singularity, automatic stabilization which adds viscous forces to the global equilibrium equations is applied. Damping factor should be kept small to achieve accurate solutions. To avoid stability difficulties a static Riks analysis is also performed for snap-through event and results are compared with static general analysis. The results of simulations are compared with results from literature and excellent agreement is obtained.