Modeling the shape memory and strength properties of fiber-reinforced shape memory polymer composite laminates

Shape memory polymer composites (SMPCs) are one of the promising material candidates applied in the fields of aerospace and biomedicine. The shape memory and strength properties of SMPCs are very important in engineering structures based on the material. In the paper, an efficient generalized Maxwell model is developed to describe the constitutive relations of the pure shape memory polymers under small deformation at first, and then extended to predict the thermomechanical properties of the SMPCs based on the bridge micromechanics model. The simulation results show that the SMPCs possess remarkable shape memory performance and enhanced mechanical properties. Thereafter, the strength properties of the matrix and the composites, as well as the effects of fiber contents, temperatures and loading angles, are studied in detail based on the polymer strength theory, the composite bridge model and the Tsai-Hill criterion. The present micromechanical model provides an efficient method for designing and optimizing SMPCs.