Active cooling techniques for coiled nylon actuators

Sukhneet Dhillon; Soheil Kianzad; Milind Pandit; Meisam Farajollahi; John Madden

doi:10.1117/12.2615205

20 April 2022 Active cooling techniques for coiled nylon actuators

Sukhneet Dhillon, Soheil Kianzad, Milind Pandit, Meisam Farajollahi, John Madden

Proceedings Volume 12042, Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) XXIV; 1204218 (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2615205
Event: SPIE Smart Structures + Nondestructive Evaluation, 2022, Long Beach, California, United States

Abstract

Low-cost, highly versatile thermally driven coiled nylon actuators have demonstrated great tensile stress (>10 MPa) and large stroke (>5%). The work density of this material is 100 times greater than mammalian muscle, which makes coiled nylon actuators good candidates for applications in soft robotics. Similar to other thermally driven actuators, heat transfer rate limits their frequency response and benefits from extensive cooling. The cooling time for these actuators is dependent on heat conduction and convection. For instance, an 860 µm multi-stranded coiled nylon actuator is limited to 0.2 Hz frequency of actuation, above which tensile stroke drops due to heat accumulation. We analyzed the thermal behavior of silver-coated nylon actuators and investigated the actuation under air flow, in hydrogel, and in water, to improve the frequency response. An improved frequency response was observed under air flow (compressed air) in relation to still air. The measured heat transfer coefficient under air flow reaches 137 W/m² /K enabling 5% strain at 0.8 Hz. The fastest frequency responses were observed in water and within hydrogel, where the nylon actuators demonstrated ~10% strain at 1 Hz (add water and hydrogel heat transfer coefficient). The application of a hydrogel coated actuator is demonstrated through an actuated 3D printed finger, which makes use of antagonistic coiled nylon actuators.

Conference Presentation

Citation Download Citation

Sukhneet Dhillon, Soheil Kianzad, Milind Pandit, Meisam Farajollahi, and John Madden "Active cooling techniques for coiled nylon actuators", Proc. SPIE 12042, Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) XXIV, 1204218 (20 April 2022); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2615205

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