Design, material properties and performances of a smart hinge based on shape memory polymer composites

Shape memory polymer composites (SMPCs) are gradually applied to deployable space structures due to their special shape memory effect and excellent mechanical properties. The design, material properties and performances of a smart hinge based on SMPC were investigated in this paper. The micro-buckling problem of the inner sheet of the hinge was solved by designing the bending path. The mechanical properties of materials with different fiber layers were characterized. The performance investigations began with obtaining the optimal voltage, followed by the test of the recovery speed, heat distribution and digital image correlation (DIC) for the SMPC hinge. The recovery force and deployed stiffness of the hinges with the different fiber layers followed by the observation of the variation of the surface morphology were obtained. The results indicated that the 3-layer hinge performed better than the 2-layer and 4-layer hinges in terms of deployed stiffness and surface morphology. Additionally, the strain variation of the hinge sheets was obtained. Finally, the smart hinge was assembled into the solar array prototype and the ground deployment verification test was successfully carried out. The research results of the hinge are expected to have reference significance in deployable space structures.