Design Methodology for Attaching Morphing Components

Cornerstone Research Group Inc. (CRG) and the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU-Boulder) will continue to establish the understanding of materials and mechanical interaction necessary to develop modeling capabilities, interface design, and fabrication processes for fastening morphing skins. During Phase I, CRG and CU-Boulder were successful in constitutive model development and prediction of mechanical behaviors of shape memory polymer (SMP) materials. Development also progressed in transition zone design using the thermally controlled methodology. Phase II efforts will focus on model development and validation for SMP composite materials exhibiting anisotropic behavior, attachment and transition zone design, and multiple prototype morphing skin demonstrations to iterate and optimize during the design process and ensure producibility and scalability of proposed transition zone design concepts. Other Phase II highlights will include a CRG and CU-Boulder collaboration to bring constitutive models in-house to CRG for the benefit of all morphing system design projects at CRG. This tool will increase productivity and quality in the R&D services that CRG provides. Furthermore, CU-Boulder intends to publish the materials model and CRG intends to provide a materials model and FEA plug-in of every related material sold by CRG Industries LLC so that all may benefit from these design tools.