The thermal shape recovery shown by shape memory alloys is a property that makes these materials very attractive for applications in the field of smart structures, e.g. bending actuators. This article shows a design method for coaxial bimorphs that are composed of a linear-elastic and shape memory alloy component, properly coupled. A simple and effective method is proposed to solve for the component designs in order to achieve given bimorph configurations. Analytical examples and finite-element simulations are shown for the case of assigned bimorph's warm shape.
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