Use of Shape Memory Alloy for Plane Panel Instability Control

The purpose of this work consists in establishing an experimental equipment designed to investigate the phenomena of instability of flat panels and in realizing a numerical model based on experimental results, able to analyze the preliminary aspects of the use of shape memory alloys to control the instability of composite panels.This thesis work is divided into three basic steps:¿ Experimental tests on aluminum alloy panels¿ Numerical Analysis for aluminum alloy panels¿ Numerical Analysis for panels made of composite materials with shape memory fibers.Once the model for composite materials with shape memory fibers is verified, we can investigate the behavior of a composite panel of large size and compatible with the experimental structure used.The use of this model on composite material panels of a size compatible with the experimental apparatus adopted allowed us to demonstrate how it is possible to delay the phenomenon of buckling, inputting into the panel at a given distance from the mid-plane, an adequate number of SMA wires.