Force and deflection modeling of IPMC fingers

Author

Simpson, J. ; Lumia, Ron ; Martinez, Manuel

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mech. Eng., Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA

fYear

2013

fDate

10-12 April 2013

Firstpage

136

Lastpage

140

Abstract

This paper utilizes a FEA (Finite Element Analysis) model to determine the change in performance that results from varying the size and shape of multiple IPMC (Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite) fingers. Unlike earlier IPMC models that predicted only deflection, this effort predicts both deflection and force. Modeling these different fingers, we are able to determine the tip deflection and force output which can then be verified experimentally. A 7 mm × 17 mm finger was modeled and determined to have a deflection of 1.44 mm and force of 2.61 mN, while the experimental data was determined to be 1.4 mm and 2.0 mN, respectively. The model had an error of 2.77% deflection and 23.37% force. Another triangular finger was also modeled in a similar fashion.

Keywords

electroactive polymer actuators; finite element analysis; FEA model; IPMC fingers; deflection modeling; finite element analysis model; force modeling; force output; ionic polymer-metal composite fingers; tip deflection; triangular finger; Fingers; Force; Load modeling; Mathematical model; Polymers; Predictive models; Transducers; FEA; IPMC; modeling;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Networking, Sensing and Control (ICNSC), 2013 10th IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Evry

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-5198-0

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4673-5199-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICNSC.2013.6548725

Filename

6548725