Dynamics of multilayered composite plates with shape memory alloy wires

In this paper certain aspects of the dynamic behavior of a multilayered, composite plate with shape memory alloys (SMA) wires have been investigated. The influence of parameters such as the orientation and location of SMA wires, the orientation and relative volume fraction of reinforcing fibers, the thickness-to-lenglh and lenglh-to-width ratios, and different boundary conditions, on changes in the critical load, the natural frequencies and the modes of vibrations of the plate have all been studied and discussed in the paper. The use of two different techniques, generally known in the literature as the active property tuning and active strain energy tuning methods, has also been investigated. The results presented in this paper have been obtained by the use of the finite element method and a new finite element formulated for multilayered composite plates has been applied for this purpose.