Composites Science and Technology 2201–2207

www.elsevier.com/locate/compscitech

Design of multistable composites for application in

adaptive structures
W. Hufenbach, M. Gude*, L. Kroll
Institut für Leichtbau und Kunststofftechnik (ILK), Technische Universität Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany

Received 20 September 2001; received in revised form 31 July 2002; accepted 1 August 2002

Abstract
During the manufacturing process and operating conditions of multilayered fibre-reinforced composites with variable fibre
orientations, residual stresses build up due to the directional expansion of the unidirectionally reinforced single layers. Dependent
on the laminate lay-up, these inhomogeneous residual stresses, which are primarily caused by thermal effects, moisture absorption
and chemical shrinkage, can lead to large multistable out-of-plane deformations in the case of unsymmetric laminates. Instead of
avoiding these laminate’s curvatures, they can be advantageously used for technical applications such as novel adaptive structures.
In order to adjust the laminate deformations to technical requirements, a dimensioning tool based on a modified stability analysis in
combination with a novel optimisation procedure has been developed and experimentally verified. Based on the theoretical inves-
tigations, an adaptive prototype of a multistable composite with integrated smart alloys has been designed and manufactured.
# 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: C. Residual stresses; Multistable composites

1. Introduction of multistable laminates for adaptive structure were

In multilayered fibre-reinforced composites with vari-
able fibre orientations, the directional expansion of the
unidirectional reinforced (UD) single layers due to ther-
mal effects, moisture absorption and chemical shrinkage
leads to a discontinuous residual stress field over the
laminate thickness. In the case of unsymmetric laminate
plates, these residual stresses generally cause different
multistable out-of-plane deformations. This paper
focuses on the purposeful adjustment of the residual
stresses dependent on the laminate lay-up and manu-
facturing process in order to design novel adaptive
structures.
Some earlier papers deal with the analytical calcula-
tion of the purely thermal out-of-plane deformations
with the help of extended non-linear displacement-strain
relations as well as by the finite element analysis (FEA)
(e.g. [1–6]), however without taking advantage of the
existence of different stable equilibrium states for tech-
nical applications. Basic ideas of technical applications
* Corresponding author: Fax: +49-351-463-38143.
E-mail address: mg@ilk.mw.tu-dresden.de (M. Gude).
0266-3538/02/$ - see front matter # 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S0266-3538(02)00159-8
given in [7,8]. Furthermore, the important influence of
the chemical shrinkage and moisture absorption on the
laminate deformation is not considered, although its
contribution to residual stresses can be higher than the
thermal contribution. Therefore the influence of shrink-
age and moisture cannot be neglected in advanced
design processes [8–11].
Considering extended stress–displacement rela-
tions, the principle of minimising the elastic
potential in combination with the Rayleigh–Ritz
method results in a system of non-linear equations
for the calculation of the multistable laminate
deformations. Dependent on the size and lay-up of
the unsymmetric laminate, the equation system leads to
different solutions of stable, indifferent and unstable
deformation states like saddle shapes or cylindrical
shapes [2–5].
The new laminate design method has successfully
been verified by experiments and numerical calculations
on unsymmetric glass-(GFRP) and carbon-(CFRP)-
fibre reinforced plastics and was successfully applied to
the design of novel adaptive multistable composites with
integrated smart alloys.
2202 W. Hufenbach et al. / Composites Science and Technology 2201–2207

2. Non-linear deformation theory of unsymmetric 1 2 

composites wðx; yÞ ¼ a0 x þ b0 y2 ; ð3Þ
2

For unsymmetric laminates, the hygro-thermally where the coefficients a0 and b0 define the laminate cur-
and chemically caused directional deformations of the vatures along the x and y axes [2–4]. For the description
UD single layers result in large out-of-plane defor- of the in-plane deformations, several approximations
mations. To take into account the large multistable can be found in the literature [1,3–5]. Based on geome-
deformations, which are often many times over the trical assumptions, polynomials odd in x and even in y
laminate thickness, the linear strain–displacement rela- for u0(x, y) and polynomials even in x and odd in y for
tions must be extended by non-linear terms (see e.g. v0(x, y) are used. Further assumptions that "0x is inde-
[2,3,5]): pendent on x, "0y is independent on y and the con-

 sideration of especially the non-linear terms in (1)
@2 w @u0 1 @w 2 @2 w
"x ¼ "0x  z 2 ¼ þ z 2 ; reduce the amount of coefficients and finally lead to the
@x @x 2 @x @x approaches
2 0

2
@ w @v 1 @w @2 w 1
"y ¼ "0y  z 2 ¼ þ z 2 ; u0 ðx; yÞ ¼ a1 x  a20 x3 þ a3 xy2 ;
@y @y 2 @y @y 6
2

0 0

@ w 1 @u @v @w @w @2 w 1
"xy ¼ "0xy  z ¼ þ þ z ; ð1Þ v0 ðx; yÞ ¼ b1 y  b20 y3 þ b3 yx2 : ð4Þ
@x@y 2 @y @x @x @y @x@y 6

where the index 0 refers to the laminate reference plane. Using the displacement approximations (3) and (4) in
The applied theory is based on the principle of mini- the strain displacement relations (1) and substituting the
mising the total potential energy, which is given here by resulting expressions into (2), the total potential energy
ð
 of the laminate becomes a function dependent on the
1 
¼ Qij "i "j  Ti "i T  Mi "i M  Si "i dV coefficients ak, bk (k=0, 1, 3).
V 2
The principle of the minimum total potential
ð2Þ energy requires the first variation to be zero, which
means:
with (i, j=1, 2, 6), where the Q ij are the reduced trans- @ @
formed stiffnesses, T and M are the differences in ¼ ak þ bk  0: ð5Þ
@ak @bk
temperature and relative media concentration with
respect to the reference state and Ti , Mi , Si are related
to the elastic constants and to the thermal expansion To satisfy this condition, every summand in (5) must
coefficients j (Ti ¼ Q ij j ), the swelling coefficients j be zero, which results in a coupled non-linear algebraic
(Mi ¼ Q ij j ) and the shrinkage sj (Si ¼ Q ij sj ), respec- equation system in ak, bk. Dependent on the laminate
tively [9]. lay-up and the laminate size, more than one solution
Based on the total potential energy, the Rayleigh–Ritz can be obtained. These solutions have to be checked for
method is applied to obtain approximate solutions for their stability by means of 2 , which has to be positive
the displacement fields. Therefore, general approaches for a stable deformation state.
in the form of polynomials are used dependent on the
laminate lay-up. 2.2. Angle-ply laminates

2.1. Cross-ply laminates The achieved semi-analytical solutions for cross-ply

For a square cross-ply [0n/90n] laminate the occurring
basic shapes are illustrated in Fig. 1. Starting from the
plane shape, which is considered as the reference state
(Fig. 1a), the residual stresses lead—dependent on the
laminate dimensions and non-mechanical loads—to a
saddle shape (b) or to either of the two stable cylindrical
shapes (c, d) (see also [2]). For [0n/90m] laminates with
n < < m or n > > m however only one stable cylindrical
shape occurs.
Geometrical assumptions for the out-of-plane dis-
placements of cross-ply laminates lead to the general
second order approach
laminates can be extended for general angle-ply [ n/
m] laminates. In contrast to cross-ply laminates, the
directions of the main curvatures of angle-ply compo-
sites generally do not coincide with the global axes of
the laminate. Thus, also twisted shapes occur in addi-
tion to the above mentioned shapes (Fig. 2).
The angle between the direction of the principal
curvatures and the global coordinate system is strongly
dependent on the fibre orientations of the single layers
[5] and not constant 45 as assumed by [4]. Thus it is
advantageous for the stability analysis to formulate the
displacement approaches in the principal curvature sys-
tem ðx~; y~; z~Þ according to Eqs. (3) and (4) at first and
 W. Hufenbach et al. / Composites Science and Technology 2201–2207 2203

Fig. 1. Basic shapes of square [0n/90n] laminates; (a) reference state at elevated curing temperature, (b–d) saddle and cylinder shapes at room tem-
perature.

Fig. 2. Basic shapes of angle-ply laminates: (a) reference state at elevated curing temperature, (b–d) twisted saddle and twisted cylindrical shapes at
room temperature; (x,y,z: global coordinate system; x~; y~; z~: principal curvature coordinate system).

to carry out a transformation into the global coordinate becomes unstable, which defines the bifurcation point
system (x, y, z) according to the transformations (B). After this bifurcation point, the saddle shape occurs
0 01 0 1 0 01 only theoretically as an unstable equilibrium state but
u cos sin 0 u~
@ v0 A ¼ @ sin not in reality, which is indicated by the dashed line BC.
cos 0 A @ v~0 A: ð6Þ
Instead of the stable saddle shape, now two equivalent
w 0 0 1 w~
stable solutions are calculated (BD and BE). Branch BD
represents the curvature a0 of the cylindrical shape in
Fig. 1d and the curvature b0 of the cylindrical shape in
Fig. 1c. Branch BE represents the secondary curvature
With the resulting approaches in the global coordi- b0 of the cylindrical shape in Fig. 1d and the second-
nate system [8] ary curvature a0 of the cylindrical shape in Fig. 1c,
which asymptotically approach zero with an increasing
u0 ðx; yÞ ¼ a1 x þ a2 y þ a3 x3 þ a4 y3 þ a5 x2 y þ a6 xy2 ;
edge length L.
v0 ðx; yÞ ¼ b1 x þ b2 y þ b3 x3 þ b4 y3 þ b5 x2 y þ b6 xy2 ; In Fig. 4 the curvatures of GFRP and CFRP [02/902]
1  laminates cured at 125  C are compared dependent on
wðx; yÞ ¼ a0 x2 þ b0 y2 þ c0 xy ð7Þ the laminate’s edge length. It can clearly be seen, that
2
for this special stacking sequence the GFRP composite
the minimising of the total potential energy can be car- has a higher curvature than the CFRP laminate. How-
ried out and the angle can be calculated from ever, several theoretical and experimental investigations
c0 on different unsymmetric composites have shown, that a
tan2 ¼ : ð8Þ
a0  b0

3. Analysis of exemplary unsymmetric composites

3.1. Analytical analysis

Applying the above mentioned theory, the solutions

expressed in terms of the curvatures of an exemplary
[02/902] CFRP laminate are shown in Fig. 3 dependent
on the laminate edge length L. Branch AB shows the
curvature of the stable saddle shape (a0=b0), which
occurs in the case of small laminates. The critical edge Fig. 3. Curvatures of a [02/902] CFRP-laminate dependent on lami-
length for the saddle shape is where the saddle shape nate edge length L.
2204 W. Hufenbach et al. / Composites Science and Technology 2201–2207
Fig. 4. Curvatures of different cross-ply laminates dependent on the
laminate edge length L.
general statement about the comparison of curvature
magnitudes of laminates made of different materials
cannot be made because of the significant influence of
many different material parameters like Ejj, E?, jj?,
Gjj?, jj, ? and lay-up parameters like the number of
layers, layer thickness and layer arrangement [9].
Instead, it has to be distinguished in each single case
dependent on the lay-up, whether for example the
GFRP or the CFRP laminate shows a higher curvature
(see Section 4). Moreover, the comparison of Figs. 2 and
3 illustrate that in general thinner laminates show a
higher curvature than thicker laminates of the same
material.
Further investigations on angle-ply [ n/ n] laminates
have shown a deformation behaviour analogous to
cross-ply laminates. The course of the curvature curves
of CFRP-T3.6 laminates given in the principal curva-
ture co-ordinate system dependent on the edge length L
are similar to the cross-ply laminates (Fig. 5). The
highest laminate principal curvatures result for ortho-
tropic laminates ( =45 ) and they reduce with decreas-
ing fibre orientations =30 and =15 .
Furthermore the orientations of the principal cur-
vature coordinate system with respect to the global
coordinate system is shown in Fig. 5. For the saddle
shape this orientation is independent of the edge length
and stacking sequence constant 45 . For the [452/452]
laminate remains constant for increasing edge lengths,
whereas decreases for the [302/302] and the [152/
152] laminates for the resulting cylindrical shapes.
3.2. Experimental and numerical verification
Within the current research, several experimental
investigations have been carried out on laminates made
of CFRP and GFRP. As an example, the deformation
states of CFRP-T3.6 [02/902] laminates due to thermal
loads and shrinkage effects are discussed here. The
laminates have been processed at a curing temperature
CT=125  C and slowly cooled down to room tempera-
ture RT=20  C, whereby a shrinkage perpendicular to
Fig. 5. Principal curvatures and curvature orientation of different
angle-ply laminates.
the fibres of 20% of the thermal expansion ? T came
along [8]. After manufacture and during the experi-
mental investigations, the laminates have been stored in
dry conditions, so that moisture effects are not expected.
The measuring of the laminate defomations has been
carried out with the help of a digital pattern projection
system.
Besides the experimental verification of the developed
semi-analytical calculation method, numerical calcula-
tions of multistable composites with the help of FEA
have been performed using the FEA-program ANSYS.
Different to earlier calculations by Schlecht and Schulte
[6], who calculated the room temperature shapes by
internal correction of residual forces and the snap-
through effect by temporary forces here the calculation
of the correct deformation state itself has been done by
applying imperfections such as small initial, temporary
forces or deformations, which initiate the correct defor-
mation during the non-linear computation [8]. As
examples, the numerically calculated shapes of square
CFRP-T3.6 laminates with different laminate edge
lengths can be seen in Fig. 6. For a [02/902] laminate
with an edge length of 30 mm, a saddle shape (Fig. 6a)
can be calculated without artificial imperfections,
whereas for the calculation of the mixed shape (Fig. 6b)
and the cylindrical shape (Fig. 6c) of [02/902] laminates
with the dimensions 60 mm 60 mm and 150 mm
150 mm the correct deformation state had to be initi-
ated by temporary forces.
The semi-analytically and numerically (FEA) calcu-
lated results and the measured curvatures for [02/902]
laminates are shown in Fig. 7. It can be seen that the
calculated curvatures of the laminates and the
experimentally determined curvatures are in good
agreement.
 W. Hufenbach et al. / Composites Science and Technology 2201–2207 2205

Fig. 6. Deformation states of cross-ply [02/902] laminates with different laminate edge lengths; (a) saddle shape, (b) mixed shape, (c) cylindrical
shape.

4. Mono- and multistable deformation behaviour
It has been shown that the deformation behaviour of
unsymmetric composites of large dimensions due to
residual stresses is characterized by multistable states of
equilibrium. These states need not be equivalent. In the
case of cross-ply laminates, the equivalence of bi-stable
cylindrical shapes depends on the ratio of the 0 and 90
plies. For a highly uneven ratio, only one single
(monostable) cylindrical shape is observed.
The different states of stability due to residual stresses
are exemplified by a quadratic cross-ply laminate
0h1 =90h2 made of CFRP-T3,6 (300 mm 300 mm 1
mm). The thickness ratio of the single layers is varied,
while the total laminate thickness h is constant. Starting
from a purely 0 UD laminate (ratio h1/h=0), which is
plane, firstly a monostable cylindrical shape occurs as
soon as the thickness of the 90 layer increases (Fig. 8,
continuous line). Further increasing the 90 layer thick-
ness leads to a higher curvature b0 until a maximum

Fig. 7. Theoretical and experimental results of cross-ply CFRP lami-

nates. Fig. 8. Curvatures of a CFRP laminate with variable layer ratio.
2206 W. Hufenbach et al. / Composites Science and Technology 2201–2207
value is achieved for a ratio of about 0.2. For small
ratios, also a second unstable solution (cylindrical shape
2, dashed line) is calculated. The associated unstable
equilibrium state turns into a stable equilibrium state
for a thickness ratio h1/h=0.3. For a ratio between 0.3
and 0.7, two stable cylindrical shapes with generally
different curvatures (a0 and b0) exist. Only for a ratio
of 0.5, these shapes are equivalent with a0=b0 other-
wise either of the two cylindrical shapes preferably
appears.
For a ratio of 0.7, the first cylindrical shape becomes
unstable and the theoretical curvature tends to zero for
higher ratios. The second cylindrical shape reaches its
maximum value for a ratio of 0.8 and tends to zero for a
purely 90 composite.
A comparison of the states of stability of crossply
0h1 =90h2 composites made of CFRP-T3,6, CFRP-
M400 and GFRP dependent on the layer thickness ratio
is shown in Fig. 9. It can be seen that the maximum
curvature of each laminate material occurs for different
layer thickness ratios. From the single values of layer
thickness ratio (CFRP-M400: h1/h=0.15; CFRP-T3.6:
h1/h=0.2; GFRP: h1/h=0.3) it can be concluded that a
higher degree of anisotropy Ek =E? of the single layer
leads to a smaller layer thickness ratio, which results in
the maximum curvature. Furthermore, the change from
a unstable cylindrical shape (dashed line) to a stable
cylindrical shape (continuous line) occur for each lami-
nate material at a different layer ratio and is dependent
on the material anisotropy.
The investigations of unsymmetric cross-ply laminates
demonstrate that different stability states as well with
equivalent as with non-equivalent shapes can be realized
dependent on the laminate lay-up, which will purpose-
fully be used in the following. A similar stability beha-
viour can be observed for [ n/ m] laminates.
Fig. 9. Curvatures of different laminate material with variable layer
ratio.
5. Adaptive multistable structures
The combination of the described multistable compo-
sites with actuators enables the design of novel adaptive
structures. By advantageously using the existence of
different stable deformation states, large adaptive
deformations and forces can be realised by a short elec-
trical impulse in contrast to conventional adaptive
structures, which need a continuous adaptive support to
realise only small deflections [7,8]. Thus, the different
stable deformation states of a cross-ply laminate for
instance can be changed by snap-through from cylind-
rical shape 1 to cylindrical shape 2 (Fig. 10).
The novel adaptive structures consist of passive com-
posite layers which are arranged in that way that a bi-
stable laminate results due to residual stresses. The sec-
ond components are smart materials, which are embed-
ded in the laminate as it is shown for cross-ply laminates
in Fig. 11.
The necessary mechanical and adaptive properties of
the composite and the adaptive components can be cal-
culated based on the developed semi-analytical method.
To initiate the snap-through, an adaptive stress state
has to be superposed to the residual stress state accord-
ing to the relations
NiSnap ¼ NiT þ NiM þ NiS ;
MiSnap ¼ MiT þ MiM þ MiS : ð9Þ
Based on the theoretical investigations, a smart pro-
totype of a multistable composite made of GFRP has
been designed and manufactured. Load adapted smart
alloys (NiTi wires) were fixed on the top and the bottom
of the cylindrical curved structure (Fig. 12).
Fig. 10. Snap-through between stable deformation states.
Fig. 11. Integration of smart alloys in multistable composite.
 W. Hufenbach et al. / Composites Science and Technology 2201–2207
Fig. 12. Prototype of an adaptive multistable composite.
Fig. 13. Schematical illustration of electrical circuits and adaptive
multistable composite.
Finally the adaptive structure was integrated in an
electrical circuit as shown in Fig. 13. By connecting and
disconnecting the single circuits the snap through of the
adaptive multistable composite can be initiated.
The new adaptive structures can be adjusted to indi-
vidual technical requirements by designing a load-
adapted composite structure. For instance, besides
switching between two equivalent cylindrical shapes in
the case of [0n/90n] laminates it can also be switched
between two non-equivalent deformation states of [0n/
90m] laminates (see Section 4) or between bi-stable
deformation states of general angle-ply laminates. Thus,
the novel adaptive structures offer a high potential for
transfer of forces or for usage as components in further
adjusting devices, mechanisms, valve flaps or active
membranes.
2207
6. Conclusions
The residual stress field, which builds up during the
manufacturing process of multilayered fibre-reinforced
composites with variable fibre orientations can be pur-
posefully used to design unsymmetric composites with
defined deformation states and curvatures. Therefore, a
modified stability analysis has been developed, which
enables the prediction of the resulting monostable and
multistable deformation states due to thermal effects,
moisture absorption and chemical shrinkage. It has
been shown that the new calculation method enables a
detailed assessment of the design parameters and serves
for the efficient construction of multilayered composites
and novel adaptive structures.
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