Soft dielectric elastomer actuator for micropump application

This paper reports a miniaturized soft dielectric elastomer actuator targeted at an active flow controlled application. The muscle-alike soft actuator buckles when subjected to a pre-stretch tensile force by a pull up spring that is made from 2 mm thick elastic plastic. The actuator forms an out-of-...

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Main Authors: Chee, P. S., Mah, C. K., Ali, M. S. M.
Format: Conference or Workshop Item
Published: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. 2016
Subjects:
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author Chee, P. S.
Mah, C. K.
Ali, M. S. M.
author_facet Chee, P. S.
Mah, C. K.
Ali, M. S. M.
author_sort Chee, P. S.
collection ePrints
description This paper reports a miniaturized soft dielectric elastomer actuator targeted at an active flow controlled application. The muscle-alike soft actuator buckles when subjected to a pre-stretch tensile force by a pull up spring that is made from 2 mm thick elastic plastic. The actuator forms an out-of-plane deflection in a conical frustum shape profile and couples with a pair of diffuser elements to rectify the fluid flow in a contraction and expansion mode. To achieve desired deflection, finite element analysis is deployed to study the geometrical design of the elastomer parameters. A maximum deflection of 0.42 mm is noted at 4.2 kV, where beyond this voltage, wrinkle is formed on the compliant electrode. The deflection dynamic response of each repetitive actuation cycle achieves high reliability at low operating frequency of 0.1 Hz and 0.25 Hz with the standard deviation of 1.4% and 1.25%, respectively. The frequency dependent characteristic of the device is determined by measuring the effective deflection at each frequency cycle. Experimental characterization of the fabricated micropump shows a successful maximum flow rate of 42 μL/s at an optimum frequency of 3 Hz.
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spelling utm.eprints-733732017-11-21T08:17:09Z http://eprints.utm.my/73373/ Soft dielectric elastomer actuator for micropump application Chee, P. S. Mah, C. K. Ali, M. S. M. TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering This paper reports a miniaturized soft dielectric elastomer actuator targeted at an active flow controlled application. The muscle-alike soft actuator buckles when subjected to a pre-stretch tensile force by a pull up spring that is made from 2 mm thick elastic plastic. The actuator forms an out-of-plane deflection in a conical frustum shape profile and couples with a pair of diffuser elements to rectify the fluid flow in a contraction and expansion mode. To achieve desired deflection, finite element analysis is deployed to study the geometrical design of the elastomer parameters. A maximum deflection of 0.42 mm is noted at 4.2 kV, where beyond this voltage, wrinkle is formed on the compliant electrode. The deflection dynamic response of each repetitive actuation cycle achieves high reliability at low operating frequency of 0.1 Hz and 0.25 Hz with the standard deviation of 1.4% and 1.25%, respectively. The frequency dependent characteristic of the device is determined by measuring the effective deflection at each frequency cycle. Experimental characterization of the fabricated micropump shows a successful maximum flow rate of 42 μL/s at an optimum frequency of 3 Hz. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. 2016 Conference or Workshop Item PeerReviewed Chee, P. S. and Mah, C. K. and Ali, M. S. M. (2016) Soft dielectric elastomer actuator for micropump application. In: 29th IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, MEMS 2016, 24-28 Jan 2016, Shanghai, China. https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84970958686&doi=10.1109%2fMEMSYS.2016.7421687&partnerID=40&md5=0b1f6600388c343f265f15a17ea57fc3
spellingShingle TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering
Chee, P. S.
Mah, C. K.
Ali, M. S. M.
Soft dielectric elastomer actuator for micropump application
title Soft dielectric elastomer actuator for micropump application
title_full Soft dielectric elastomer actuator for micropump application
title_fullStr Soft dielectric elastomer actuator for micropump application
title_full_unstemmed Soft dielectric elastomer actuator for micropump application
title_short Soft dielectric elastomer actuator for micropump application
title_sort soft dielectric elastomer actuator for micropump application
topic TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering
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