Marco Riva – Thesis Proposal – Shape Memory Alloys for Astronomical Instrumentation |
It will be inserted in the current research activity devoted to this argument. This thesis wants to investigate possible applications of Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) as
functional devices for space and ground based application in Instrumentations for Astronomy. Thermal activated Shape Memory Alloys are materials able to recover
their original shape, after an external deformation, if heated above a characteristic temperature.
If the recovery of the shape is completely or partially prevented by the presence of constraints, the material can generate recovery stress. Thanks to this feature, these
materials can be positively exploited in Smart Structures if properly embedded into host materials. Some technological processes developed for an efficient use of
SMA-based actuators embedded in smart structures tailored to astronomical instrumentation have been already developed at Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera in
collaboration with Politecnico di Milano and will be developed in this framework. Some possible modeling approaches of the actuators behavior will be addressed
taking into account trade-offs between detailed analysis and overall performance prediction as a function of the computational time. The Material characterization
procedure adopted for the constitutive laws implementation will be taken into addressed as well. This thesis work will then deal with shape memory alloys and their
possible introduction into the design/manufacturing of optomechanical mounts mainly for Astronomical Instrumentation. It will combine sperimental And Numerical
Activities dealing with non-linear analysis and user defined constitutive laws.
SMA optomechanical Mounting example (Experiment left and FEM
right)
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Last modified: 06/11/2008