Modeling and optimization of thermally excited carbon black and polymer composite actuator

Abstract

As of late, actuators in view carbon black, carbon nanotube and graphene were shown in the extraordinary potential application in the field of drug delivery system, relay switches, robotics, energy harvesting and so on. Now a day electro-thermal and photo-thermal driven actuator based on polymer composite show larger actuation compare to the traditional thermal actuator. Though, the impact of structural dimensions and material parameters on the actuator execution ought to be investigated further. Since it is a critical point in the design and fabrications of the high-performance actuator In the present work, finite element (FE) analysis is adopted to simulate the thermally driven bilayer actuator and investigated the performance based on carbon black and polymer composite. Thus, the computational method is carried out to design and optimize the geometry and material parameters such as thickness, the coefficient of thermal expansion and so on. FE simulation results demonstrate that each layer thickness of the actuator has an important role in curvature deformation. A maximum curvature is obtained of 8.9 m-1 by simulation, which is a decent expected value in light of the geometry and material. Furthermore, a larger change in temperature and CTE between two layers additionally predicts the more prominent bending curvature. Consequently, this investigation is relied upon to give a theoretical baseline to plan and fabrication of CB based thermal actuator for a greater actuation performance. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd.