Experimentation of the Bilinear Elastic Behavior of Plain-Woven GFRP Composite with Embedded SMA Wires

In this paper, a plain-woven glass-fabric-reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite with embedded shape memory alloy (SMA) wires is investigated by means of experiments. The vacuum-assisted resin injection (VARI) method is utilized to fabricate the composite specimens. Quasi-static uniaxial tensile tests are then carried out to evaluate the influence of SMA reinforcement on the stress–strain behavior of the composite. Only the elastic behavior of the composite is considered in the present study. The tensile strain in all the experiments is kept below 2.5% to avoid debonding of the SMA-resin interface, which would lead to failure of the composite. Stress–strain curves are obtained and shown to present a bilinear behavior due to phase transformation taking place in the SMA wires beyond a certain stress threshold.