ABSTRACT
Nowadays, composites have many applications in various industries. A novel type of composites, which are called bistable morphing structures, is generally used in cases where the structure is undergoing frequent deformities. The practical application of these structures requires their analysis and testing in different conditions. Bitable composite plates have two stable states and can be transformed under continuous force between these two stable states. In this chapter, firstly, a summary of the types of commonly used fibers and resins in the composite industry is introduced, and then is given some details on the structures of morphing and bistable composite plates. In the following are investigated the effect of materials and the layers arrangement on the deformed states of the bistable composite plates. For this purpose, bistable composite plates with different layers and bistable hybrid composite plates are studied, and their equilibrium and stable states are assessed. The Rayleigh-Ritz method and the principle of potential energy minimization are analyzed to determine the equations governing the structure. After determining the governing equations of structure and solving the nonlinear equations system, the equilibrium and stable states of the structure are obtained. The curvature value will be calculated in each stable state for a bistable composite plate with the above-mentioned layers arrangements. In this research, the results are validated using finite element method and ABAQUS software which shows that the results have acceptable accuracy.
