Experimental investigations of skin-like material and computation of its material properties

In this research, an experimental investigation is carried out with pure silicone of five different grades and blended mixture of different grades of silicone at 1:1 volume fraction for the development of a skin-like soft material for robotic applications. The samples are prepared by compression molding and tensile testing was performed on dumb-bell shaped specimens as per ASTM D412 standard at crosshead speed of 250 mm/minute It is observed from the experiments that silicone grade 10 crosslinked with Luperox 101 yielded the tensile strength of 2.189 MPa which is closer to the human skin in forearm. It is also derived from the experiments that blended mixtures revealed the lower tensile strength than pure silicone of the same grade. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) studies were also done on samples to understand the dispersion of the compounds and mechanical damages in the developed soft material. Finally, the numerical simulation for Mooney-Rivlin, Ogden and Yeoh non-linear material modes are carried out and non-linear material constants of Silicone grade 10 are computed and tabulated. The developed soft material will be used in robotics for soft manipulation in future.