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PVC Gel Actuator Variations
PVC Gel Actuator Variations
Testing Set Up
Testing Set Up
All 4 PVC gel actuator variations were secured to a glass slide. Using a current limited battery, a 500 V will be applied to the actuator to achieve the charged (compressed) state. An image of the charged actuator will be taken for imageJ analysis. After 5 seconds, the battery will be discharged and the actuator will be allowed to relax for 5 seconds to achieve the discharged state. An image of the actuator will be taken for imageJ analysis. This will be repeated 3 times for each actuator variation. The images will be analyzed to determine the height of each actuator at its charged and discharged states as well as the time requires to reach the fully extended and contracted state.
Results
Results
Highest Strain achieved from all variations was ~5.5%, comparable to literature values. This was produced by b20 and closely followed by b50 at ~5.2%
Maximum Strain produced by the b20 and b50 variations were much larger than the s20 and s50. This suggests that for a constant load, higher cross-sectional area actuators can produce significantly higher strain.
The stress strain plots of the b20, b50 and the s50 actuator variations are quite similar with many overlapping regions.
s20 actuator displayed a different curve, where the actuator could not achieve as high stress or strain values as the other three actuator variations.
The response rate to the applied voltage was observed to take around 0.8 seconds for all actuator variations.
The response rate to the voltage discharged was observed to take around 1.2 seconds for s20, 1.4 seconds for the s50 and b50 actuators, and finally around 2.1 seconds for the b20 actuator.
Conclusions
Conclusions
The PVC gel actuator variations can produce biologically relevant strain, stress, and response times.
PVC Gel Actuators seem to be scalable when mesh size is carefully considered
Designed housing provides strong structural support for the actuator and facilitates actuator fabrication and actuation.
Leader: Leonardo Cheng
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