Simple and strong: twisted silver painted nylon artificial muscle actuated by Joule heating

Seyed M. Mirvakili; Ali Rafie Ravandi; Ian W Hunter; Carter S. Haines; Na Li; Javad Foroughi; Sina Naficy; Geoffrey M. Spinks; Ray H. Baughman; John D. W. Madden

doi:10.1117/12.2046411

26 March 2014 Simple and strong: twisted silver painted nylon artificial muscle actuated by Joule heating

Seyed M. Mirvakili, Ali Rafie Ravandi, Ian W Hunter, Carter S. Haines, Na Li, Javad Foroughi, Sina Naficy, Geoffrey M. Spinks, Ray H. Baughman, John D. W. Madden

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9056, Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2014; 90560I (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2046411
Event: SPIE Smart Structures and Materials + Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring, 2014, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Highly oriented nylon and polyethylene fibres shrink in length when heated and expand in diameter. By twisting and then coiling monofilaments of these materials to form helical springs, the anisotropic thermal expansion has recently been shown to enable tensile actuation of up to 49% upon heating. Joule heating, by passing a current through a conductive coating on the surface of the filament, is a convenient method of controlling actuation. In previously reported work this has been done using highly flexible carbon nanotube sheets or commercially available silver coated fibres. In this work silver paint is used as the Joule heating element at the surface of the muscle. Up to 29% linear actuation is observed with energy and power densities reaching 840 kJ m^-3 (528 J kg^-1) and 1.1 kW kg^-1 (operating at 0.1 Hz, 4% strain, 1.4 kg load). This simple coating method is readily accessible and can be applied to any polymer filament. Effective use of this technique relies on uniform coating to avoid temperature gradients.

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Seyed M. Mirvakili, Ali Rafie Ravandi, Ian W Hunter, Carter S. Haines, Na Li, Javad Foroughi, Sina Naficy, Geoffrey M. Spinks, Ray H. Baughman, and John D. W. Madden "Simple and strong: twisted silver painted nylon artificial muscle actuated by Joule heating", Proc. SPIE 9056, Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2014, 90560I (26 March 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2046411

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