Smart driving of a bilayered composite tape-spring structure

Composite tape-springs (CTS) structure has been applied to spatial developable structures due to its bistability. There is growing interest in smart driving of the CTS-based structures because of the limitations on the working environment. Here, we propose a detailed analysis of the smart driving of the CTS structure. This is achieved by using smart materials to develop a bilayered CTS intelligent structure: the smart material forms the active layer to generate stress/strain to drive the structure; the CTS layer acts as a passive layer where its intrinsic bistability, designability further enriches the diversity of intelligent morphing structures. A theoretical analytical model is developed to anticipate the bistability; the stability criteria are then determined to guide the intelligent morphing design. These will facilitate the future smart driving design of aerospace deployable structures.