Fabrication, modeling and optimization of an ionic polymer gel actuator

The modeling of the electro-active behavior of ionic polymer gel is studied and the optimum conditions that maximize the deflection of the gel are investigated. The bending deformation of polymer gel under an electric field is formulated by using chemo-electro-mechanical parameters. In the modeling, swelling and shrinking phenomena due to the differences in ion concentration at the boundary between the gel and solution are considered prior to the application of an electric field, and then bending actuation is applied. As the driving force of swelling, shrinking and bending deformation, differential osmotic pressure at the boundary of the gel and solution is considered. From this behavior, the strain or deflection of the gel is calculated. To find the optimum design parameter settings (electric voltage, thickness of gel, concentration of polyion in the gel, ion concentration in the solution, and degree of cross-linking in the gel) for bending deformation, a nonlinear constrained optimization model is formulated. In the optimization model, a bending deflection equation of the gel is used as an objective function, and a range of decision variables and their relationships are used as constraint equations. Also, actuation experiments are conducted using poly(2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid) (PAMPS) gel and the optimum conditions predicted by the proposed model have been verified by the experiments.