Development and modeling of novel extensional ionic polymer transducers

Ionic polymer transducers (IPT), sometimes referred to as artificial muscles, are known to generate a large bending strain and a moderate stress at low applied voltages. Bending actuators have limited engineering applications due to the low forcing capabilities and the need for complicated external devices to convert the bending action into rotating or linear motion desired in most devices. Recently Akle and Leo (2006) reported extensional actuation in ionic polymer transducers. Model prediction indicates that such actuators can produce strain up to 10% and a blocked stress up to 20MPa under a +/- 2V applied electric potential. Compared to other smart materials, IPT is a flexible membrane and it has a reliability of over one million cycles. In this work novel extensional IPT actuators are developed for the purpose of increasing the overall displacement of the actuator. The electromechanical coupling is measured and a coff elation of the experimental data with the active areas model by Akle and Leo (2006) and the numerical electromechanical model by Wallmersperger and Leo (2004) are presented. The coupling between each test case with the model parameters enables further understanding of the physical actuation phenomena as the role of diffusion of ions and diluents and the electrostatic forces between the charged species. In this study the displacement of an extensional ionic polymer transducer is measured and compared to the bending of the same IPT actuator. The bending strain is measured to be approximately 2.5%, while the extensional strain for the same ionomer is in the order of 17.5%. Finally an interesting behavior, reported for the first time is the steady expansion of the IPT sample due to the application of a symmetrical sine wave. This indicates that charge accumulation is occurring at the electrode.