Effect of Heating Rate on the Thermomechanical Cycle of Shape Memory Polymers

Shape memory polymers have wide applications in aerospace and medical applications due to its ability to change shape when properly tuned. In the present work, we have studied the thermomechanical cycle of epoxy-based polymer composites by increasing the fibre volume fraction and the number of heating elements to increase the heating rate for reducing the thermomechanical cycle time. The heating rate is increased to 46 °C/Min from 14 °C/Min and the cycle time has been calculated. An experimental setup has been established for heating, loading, unloading, and cooling. The performance of glass/epoxy composites with Neopentyl Glycol Diglycidyl Ether (NGDE) as filler for establishing the shape memory effect has been studied for the thermomechanical loading. A cantilever beam of epoxy composites has been considered for the study and its shape fixity and shape recovery have been studied through the thermomechanical cycle. The experiment has been repeated for multiple bending cycles and it is observed that the composite beam does not lose its strength even up to 50 complete loadings, thermal heating, unloading, cooling, and heating. The experimental setup has improved temperature sensing accuracy and the data acquisition system to automatically read and save the time, temperature, and displacement values.