The deflection response characteristics of Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite (IPMC) cantilever actuator under Alternating Current (AC) excitations are investigated in the present work. A program based on numerical calculation platform MATLAB for Digital Image Correlation (DIC) analysis with multiple Regions of Interest (ROI) is developed. The program can be used to study the micro-scale dynamic lateral movement processes of the fabricated IPMC sample with Pt electrodes, which are recorded by a digital microscope. The results indicate that the deflection amplitude increases linearly with the increase of excitation voltage and from the clamped side of the sample to the free side and has approximately a negative exponent relation with the excitation frequency. Moreover, the vibration center of vibrating IPMC sample is not fixed. The program has been proved to obtain deflections of multiple ROIs simultaneously, thus is very useful for mechanical measurements.
Ionic polymer–metal composite (IPMC) cantilever actuator demonstrates significant bending deformation upon application of excitation voltage across electrodes without external load. In the present work, the non-contact digital image correlation (DIC) and a digital microscope were used to investigate the micro-scale displacement and strain distributions on the cross section of the actuator under excitation voltages, according to the low mass and film properties of IPMC material. The target surface of the fabricated IPMC sample with Pt electrodes was roughened with fine sandpapers to prepare an appropriate speckled surface. The experimental results indicate that longitudinal normal strain is linearly distributed along the thickness direction and strain gradient of longitudinal normal strain varies linearly with electric field. The longitudinal and transverse normal strains decrease with the increase of the frequency of the excitation voltage. Moreover, due to water loss of the sample in air, the IPMC actuator demonstrates contractive deformation when exposed in the air. The micro scale DIC technique has been proved to have excellent accuracy over a large range of strains, thus is very powerful for mechanical analysis of IPMC materials.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.