## 1 Introduction  
Shape memory polymers (SMPs) are stimuli-responsive materials that can assume a temporary shape and recover their original shape when triggered through an external stimulation such as thermal stimulus, electric current, light, magnetic field, moisture, and pH value [1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8]. Thermally induced SMPs are the most common type of SMP. Compared to shape memory alloys and shape memory ceramics, SMPs have been widely researched due to their facile processability, low cost, appreciable shape recovery, and broad range of shape recovery temperatures [9; 10; 11; 12]. Therefore, they are ideal candidates for potential applications in intelligent biomedical materials, heat shrinkable packaging, smart textile, aeronautics, astronautics, sensors and actuators, information carriers, disassembly concepts, and supervision technologies for cooling chains [13; 14; 15; 16; 17; 18; 19; 20; 21].  
Though outstanding in some aspects compared with shape memory alloys and shape memory cerenics, SMPs have obvious shortcomings: low mechanical strength and shape recovery stress. The recovery stress of shape memory alloys can reach as high as 800 megapascals, but the recovery stress of SMPs is usually from a few tenths of a megapascal to a few tens of megapascals. In order to solve this problem, considerable efforts have been made. However, until today, the immediate method has been using high modulus inorganic or organic fillers to reinforce the pristine SMPs. In the past few years, carbon materials, including carbon black, carbon fiber, carbon nanotubes, and graphene, have been widely applied in polymer composites. [PERSON] et al. [22] filled shape memory polyethylene with carbon black to prepare two-way reversible shape memory polymer composites. In the composites, the additional of carbon black nanoparticles has had a beneficial effect on performance in the two-wayshape memory effect, and carbon black increased the tensile modulus in the rubbery. [PERSON] et al. [23] reinforced shape memory polyurethane with graphene and found that graphene effectively reinforced polyurethane and improved the shape recovery of an SMP composite.  
In general, there are two types of SMPs: thermoplastic and thermoset SMPs. Compared with thermoplastic SMPs, thermoset SMPs exhibit a much higher stiffness and dimensional stability, and have better environmental durability. Therefore, thermosetting SMPs have received much of the attention among researchers and are commonly used as matrix materials in structural composites for their high stiffness and shape recovery force. However, the studies have been mostly conducted in tension mode. In the current work, silicon carbide whiskers (SiCws) were used to fill a hydro-epoxy resin to prepare a shape memory polymer composite. SiCws usually act as reinforcement phases to improve the property of a polymer-matrix due to their exceptional mechanical properties, low weight, high aspect ratio, high elastic modulus, chemical stability, and high thermal shock resistance [24; 25; 26]. Moreover, epoxy resins have been associated with a high modulus and strength, and have been widely studied and used in many kinds of structural composites [27]. Therefore, SiCws were chosen as the reinforcing phase to fill the shape memory epoxy resin. The effect of the SiCws on the mechanical properties, thermal properties, and shape memory performance of SiCw/hydro-epoxy composites were investigated.