• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.65-70
• /
• 2012

Structural changing materials which can induce the physical deformation of materials are interesting research topics with various potential applications. Particularly, light among many driving mechanisms is a non-contact energy source, hence the light-responsive system can be used where non-destructive, local irradiation, and remote control is needed. Here, a mainchain azobenzene polymer is synthesized and its physical and optical properties are observed and compared to that of a polymer having a light-responsive azobenzene moiety on its side chain. Further dispersion onto polyvinylalcohol hydrogel is made and its dual stability and actuation are observed upon UV-visible light irradiation. Extended azobenzene polymer blend films show an anisotropic light-actuation with non-polarized UV light at room temperature. This physical shape change is quite reversible and occurs at lower temperature than that of any other reported systems including liquid crystalline elastomers. It is successfully demonstrated that the simple physical azobenzene/polymer blending has a very good actuation compared to that of LCEs which need an elaborate chemical design and it can be further used in the areas requiring a dimensional shape change.

• Macromolecular Research
• /
• v.12 no.6
• /
• pp.564-572
• /
• 2004

Modem applications could benefit from multifunctional materials having anisotropic optical, electrical, thermal, or mechanical properties, especially when coupled with locally controlled distribution of the directional response. Such materials are difficult to engineer by conventional methods, but the electric field-aided technology presented herein is able to locally tailor electroactive composites. Applying an electric field to a polymer in its liquid state allows the orientation of chain- or fiber-like inclusions or phases from what was originally an isotropic material. Such composites can be formed from liquid solutions, melts, or mixtures of pre-polymers and cross-linking agents. Upon curing, a 'created composite' results; it consists of these 'pseudofibers' embedded in a matrix. One can also create oriented composites from embedded spheres, flakes, or fiber-like shapes in a liquid plastic. Orientation of the externally applied electric field defines the orientation of the field-aided self-assembled composites. The strength and duration of exposure of the electric field control the degree of anisotropy created. Results of electromechanical testing of these modified materials, which are relevant to sensing and actuation applications, are presented. The materials' micro/nanostructures were analyzed using microscopy and X-ray diffraction techniques.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
• /
• 1995.10a
• /
• pp.1084-1088
• /
• 1995

In this paper, an electrostatic plate resonator with four corrugated bridges and another with four flat ones have been fabricated and tested by the electrostatic actuation. The resonators consist of one rigid plate and four bridges. Boron diffusion process and anisotropic etch process with EPW are mainly used to fabricate the resonators. The dynamic characteristics of the fabricated resonators are obtained by measuring the velocity of the center of the rigid plate using a laser vibrometer. The results show that the deflection of the resonator with the corrugated bridges is larger than the resonator with the flat ones. It has been confirmed that the corrugated structure releases the residual tensile stress in the bridges resulted from the diffusion process.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.25 no.8
• /
• pp.1261-1268
• /
• 2001

Effective material properties of active fiber composites with interdigitated electrodes are derived as a function of the fiber volume fraction. For the purpose of applying the rule of mixture, three unit cell models are introduced; each for the deformation and stress continuities in the out of plane and in-plane directions, and the continuity of the electrical displacement in the longitudinal direction. Derived effective material properties are compared with the results by the finite element method; good agreements are observed between them. As an application, the electromechanical behavior of the angle ply laminates with the active fiber layers bonded on the top and bottom surfaces are investigated; the angle of piezoelectric fiber to maximize the twisting curvature is obtained using the present model.

• Polymer(Korea)
• /
• v.26 no.1
• /
• pp.105-112
• /
• 2002

The low actuation voltage and quick bending response of IPMC(ion-exchange polymer metal composite) are considered attractive for the construction of various types of actuators. In this study, in order to develop a new type actuators by using the IPMC platinum electrode of IPMC are fabricated by using electroless impregnation-reduction method plating. As the platinum-plating times are increased, IPMC performance was improved in terms of bending displacement and force due to the enhanced surface conductivity. In addition, we investigated the basic actuation characteristics of resonance frequency and actuator length as well as the effect of water uptake and ion mobility. Using the classical laminate theory(CLT), a modeling methodology was developed to predict the deformation, bending moment, and residual stress distribution of anisotropic IPMC thin plates. In this modeling methodology, the internal stress evolved by the unsymmetric distribution of water inside IPMC was quantitatively calculated and subsequently the bending moment and the curvature were estimated for various geometry of IPMC actuator.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.501-515
• /
• 2014

This paper presents a linear computational homogenization framework to evaluate the effective (or generalized) electromechanical coupling coefficient (EMCC) of adaptive structures with piezoelectric structural fiber (PSF) composite elements. The PSF consists of a silicon carbide (SiC) or carbon core fiber as reinforcement to a fragile piezo-ceramic shell. For the micro-scale analysis, a micromechanics model based on the variational asymptotic method for unit cell homogenization (VAMUCH) is used to evaluate the overall electromechanical properties of the PSF composites. At the macro-scale, a finite element (FE) analysis with the commercial FE code ABAQUS is performed to evaluate the effective EMCC for structures with the PSF composite patches. The EMCC is postprocessed from free-vibrations analysis under short-circuit (SC) and open-circuit (OC) electrodes of the patches. This linear two-scale computational framework may be useful for the optimal design of active structure multi-functional composites which can be used for multi-functional applications such as structural health monitoring, power harvest, vibration sensing and control, damping, and shape control through anisotropic actuation.

• ETRI Journal
• /
• v.31 no.6
• /
• pp.695-702
• /
• 2009

We propose a lens-drive unit composed of an ionic polymer-metal composite (IPMC) for an auto-focus compact camera module in cellular phones to solve the power consumption problem of voice coil motors which are widely used in commercial products. In this research, an IPMC incorporated into a lens-drive unit is designed to implement a large displacement in low-power consumption by using an anisotropic plasma treatment. Experimental results show that a camera module containing IPMCs can control and maintain the position of the lens by using proportional integral derivative control with a photo-reflective position sensor despite the non-linear actuation behavior of IPMCs. We demonstrate that the fabrication and commercialization of a lens actuator that has a large displacement and low power consumption using IPMCs is possible in the near future.