ABSTRACT
SMP is a new kind of smart material that can keep temporary shape and recover the original shape under some external stimulus, such as temperature, light, electricity, solution, and so on. Compared with traditional metal materials and shape memory alloys (SMA), shape memory polymers (SMPs) and shape memory polymer composites (SMPCs) have some unique advantages, such as light weight, low cost, high deformation, and recovery ability and easily tailorable transition temperature. Traditionally, the actuation methods of SMPs and SMPCs mainly consist of temperature, light, Joule heating (electricity), and solution, in which the temperature and Joule-heating methods are most common methods in application. Temperature actuation is one of the most commonly used methods to measure the shape-memory ability of SMPs and SMPCs on the experimental scale. A tensile machine with a temperature environment chamber has been the main technique used to quantify the shape deformation and shape-recovery ability of SMP and SMPC samples.
