"Equivalent" material properties for designing ionic polymer metal composite actuators by equivalent bimorph beam theory

TL;DRAbstract

This thesis addresses the Ionic Polymer Metal Composite (IPMC) actuators and two “equivalent” materials parameters for their design and performance assessments: electromechanical coupling coefficient and elastic modulus. The “equivalent” parameters not being material constants are derived from equivalent bimorph beam model. The Nafion membrane based IPMC actuator strips of several thicknesses are manufactured by electrochemical platinization method. The effect of the thickness and operating voltage on the equivalent coupling coefficient is demonstrated by using a design of experiment of three and five levels of the two factors, respectively. Experiments and finite element analyses using MD.NASTRAN are used to evaluate the tip displacement and the coupling coefficient for which response surface (RS) approximation as function of the thickness and voltage are constructed. Experiments and predictions indicate that thickness and voltage are interacting major factors for maximum tip displace

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