Experimental study and electromechanical model analysis of the nonlinear deformation behavior of IPMC actuators

This paper develops analytical electromechanical formulas to predict the mechanical deformation of ionic polymer-metal composite (IPMC) cantilever actuators under DC excitation voltages. In this research, IPMC samples with Pt and Ag electrodes were manufactured, and the large nonlinear deformation and the effect of curvature on surface electrode resistance of the IPMC samples were investigated experimentally and theoretically. A distributed electrical model was modified for calculating the distribution of voltage along the bending actuator. Then an irreversible thermodynamic model that could predict the curvature of a unit part of an IPMC actuator is combined with the electrical model so that an analytical electromechanical model is developed. The electromechanical model is then validated against the experimental results obtained from Pt- and Ag-IPMC actuators under various excitation voltages. The good agreement between the electromechanical model and the actuators shows that the analytical electromechanical model can accurately describe the large nonlinear quasi-static deflection behavior of IPMC actuators.