• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.101-110
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• 1995

In SMA(Shape Memory Alloy), the degradation by fatigue is one of the most important problems to be overcome, when SMA is used for robot-actuator materials. The actuator is operated repetitively for long time and its repeating operation develops the fatigue degradation of SMA. The fatigue degradation changes the transformation temperature and deformation behavior and results in inaccurate operation and deformation which results form repeating operation is to be investigated in advance and the scheme to resolve those problems have to be made for the design of actuator. In this paper, for the improvement of the fatigue degradation by repetive movement and better control of the correct movement by the stability of martensite transformation in the development of Robots actuator, Pre-strain(0, 1.5, 5, 8%) are loaded in the specimens and fatigue testing were carried out by the method of heating and cooling in direct condition. From the results of these experiments, the effect on pre-strain which affect the transformation characteristic and fatigue degradation phenomena were correctly investigated.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.196-202
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• 2002

In this work, we propose a new type of HDD suspension featuring shape memory alloy (SMA) actuator in order to prevent the contact between the slider and disk. The principal design parameters are obtained from the modal analysis using finite element analysis, and then the dynamic model is established to formulate the control scheme for Non-Contact Start/stop mode drive. Subsequently, a robust H$\_$$\infty$/ control algorithm is designed by integrating experimentally-Obtained SMA actuator dynamics to the proposed HDD suspension system. The controller is empirically realized and control results for the load/unload profiles are presented in time domain. In addition, the contact signal between the slider and disk is measured by the electrical resistance method.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.87-95
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• 1992

Recently, the robot actuator worked by the driving recovery-force of the thermo elastic martensitic transformation of shape memory alloys(SMA) has been studied. In general, such a SMA actuator necessitates a number of cyclic repeated motion, so that the investigation of gradual decrease of recovery force with repeated motion cycle as well as the prevention of such a degradation of shape memory effect(SME) are very important for the actual use of a robot actuator. However, such research and discussions about the degradation of SME are very few up to the present. Therefore, in this study, the characteristics of the cyclic deformation and degradation of SME of Ti-Ni alloy would be investigated and discussed in detail by current heat type fatigue tester, which is a newly designed fatigue tester by author. In addition, we will establish a new design concept for robot actuator from these result.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.285-292
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• 1998

Shape Memory Alloy(SMA) has been used in many engineering fields because of its good characteristics of actuator. For example, SMA wire can be embedded easily in the polymer composite laminate and then be used as actuator for structural control. Since the strain have a significant influence on the electrical resistance of SMA wire, It is a possible to use the SMA wire as a sensor of such physical quantities. In this study, the possibility for the application of Ni-Ti SMA wire as a sensor embedded within a composite laminate is investigated.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.361-377
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• 2019

The stiffness of shape memory alloy (SMA) spring while in actuation is represented by an empirical model that is derived from the logistic differential equation. This model correlates the stiffness to the alloy temperature and the functionality of SMA spring as active variable stiffness actuator (VSA) is analyzed based on factors that are the input conditions (activation current, duty cycle and excitation frequency) and operating conditions (pre-stress and mechanical connection). The model parameters are estimated by adopting the nonlinear least square method, henceforth, the model is validated experimentally. The average correlation factor of 0.95 between the model response and experimental results validates the proposed model. In furtherance, the justification is augmented from the comparison with existing stiffness models (logistic curve model and polynomial model). The important distinction from several observations regarding the comparison of the model prediction with the experimental states that it is more superior, flexible and adaptable than the existing. The nature of stiffness variation in the SMA spring is assessed also from the Dynamic Mechanical Thermal Analysis (DMTA), which as well proves the proposal. This model advances the ability to use SMA integrated mechanism for enhanced variable stiffness actuation. The investigation proves that the stiffness of SMA spring may be altered under controlled conditions.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.69-75
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• 2012

This paper proposes a biomimetic finger module to be used in a lightweight hand prosthesis. The finger module consists of finger skeleton and an actuator module driven by SMA (Shape Memory Alloy). The prototype finger module can perform flexion and extension motions; finger flexion is driven by a contraction force of SMA, but it is extended by an elastic force of an extension spring inserted into the finger skeleton. The finger motions are controlled by feedback of electric resistance of SMA because the finger module has no sensors to measure length and angle. Total weight of a prototype finger module is 30g. In experiments the finger motions and finger grip force are tested and compared with simulation results when a constant contraction force of SMA is given. The experimental results show that the proposed SMA-driven finger module is feasible to the lightweight hand prosthesis.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.16 no.2 s.95
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• pp.15-22
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• 1999

This paper demonstrates the feasibility of Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) actuators in controlling the motion of micro active catheter. The dynamic behavior of SMA is obtained by several experiments for the design of the controller. With the control parameters obtained in experiments, temperature feedback control algorithm is proposed and realized. The prototype of micro active catheter is fabricated, and its control performance which uses the designed controller is investigated. The results obtained show the potential of the SMA as viable means for actuating the micro active catheter.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.28-33
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• 2014

Recently, the actuator worked by the driving recovery-force of the thermo elastic martensitic transformation of shape memory alloys(SMA) has been studied. This paper presents a study on the fatigue life of shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators undergoing thermally induced martensitic phase transformation under various stress levels. shape memory recoverable stress and strain of Ti-44.5at.%Ni-8at.%Cu alloys were by means of constant temperature tensile tests. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was employed in order to investigate the transformation characteristics of the alloy before the tests. the results were summarized as follows. The martensite inducing stress incerased with the increasing of the Cu-contents. The fatigue life decreased with the increasing of the test load and the Cu-content. The data acquired will be very useful during the design process of an SMA NiTiCu element as a functional part of an actuator.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2008.04a
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• pp.557-561
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• 2008

Shape memory alloys (SMA) have interesting features which are the superelastic effect (SE), shape memory effect (SME), two-way SME (TWSME), and so on. These are utilized in actuation factor. The thermo-mechanical constitutive equations of SMA proposed by Lagoudas et al. were employed in the present study for simulating SMA truss structures. The constitutive equation includes the necessary internal variables to account for the material transformations and is utilized in the non-linear finite element procedure of three dimensional truss structures that composed SMA bar (wholly or partially). In this study, we observed which element should be actuated to get a desired shape (actuation shape) from computational analysis. To reach this goal, we apply SMA constitutive equation to non-linear finite element formulation. And then, we simulate two-way shape memory effect as well as superelastic effect of various three dimensional truss using SMA.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.335-336
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• 2010