Educational stand using shape memory alloys to enhance teaching of smart materials

The goal of this paper is to present a simple but effective stand used for demonstration of Shape Memory Alloys (SMA) behaviour. The hands-on device is developed to offer experiences, previously unavailable, in order to introduce SMAs to anyone, but especially to undergraduate mechanical or materials engineering students. The experimental set-up was designed in order to test SMA active elements in the Device Designing and Robotics Laboratory of Center of Advanced Research, Design & Technology - CARDT from Eftimie Murgu University Resita,. The device features an SMA wire weight-lifter and an actuated spring to demonstrate the force magnitude exerted by the active element under the action of temperature. The set-up is used as a teaching tool and as an outreach demonstration, being an effective tackle in assisting students to learn about SMAs. Many other experiments and demonstrations, such as identifying thermal transfer functions, predicting and observing the displacement and understanding the phase transition can be derived from this setup. It is found that these demonstrations help to bridge the gap between theory and intuition during a student's learning process. These demonstrations can motivate students to pursue further studies in smart materials and structures.