Folding of a bistable tape-spring structure based on plain-woven composite
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Abstract
Morphing structures using composite materials have received increasing interest in recent years, in the areas of aircraft aerofoils [1,2], automobile structures [3], and wind-turbine blades [4]. Multistable composite structures with more than one stable load-free shape can be produced by means of thermal residual stress [5], geometrical curvature effects [6], piezoelectric actuation [7], and prestress induced from either elasticity [8] or viscoelasticity [9]. A bistable structure of interest here is a thin-walled, laminated, open slit tube better known as a composite tape-spring (CTS), which is stable in both its unstressed cylindrical shape and coiled configuration. The mechanism of its bistability is well-understood, see for example [6]: other previous studies on CTS focus on their deployment behaviour as a single structure or integrated within deployable structures [10-13], as well as modelling their natural viscoelastic constitutive behaviour [14-16]. Here, we study the folding capability of a CTS proposed as a hinge safety connection within an aircraft landing gear system.