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Dielectric Elastomer Fluid Pump of High Pressure and Large Volume Via Synergistic Snap-Through.
- Source :
-
Journal of Applied Mechanics . Oct2018, Vol. 85 Issue 10, p1-6. 6p. - Publication Year :
- 2018
-
Abstract
- Harnessing reversible snap-through of a dielectric elastomer (DE), which is a mechanism for large deformation provided by an electromechanical instability, for large-volume pumping has proven to be feasible. However, the output volume of snap-through pumping is drastically reduced by adverse pressure gradient, and large-volume pumping under high adverse pressure gradient by a DE pump has not been realized. In this paper, we propose a new mechanism of DE fluid pumping that can address this shortcoming by connecting DE pumps of different membrane stiffnesses serially in a pumping circuit and by harnessing synergistic interactions between neighboring pump units. We build a simple serial DE pump to verify the concept, which consists of two DE membranes. By adjusting the membrane stiffness appropriately, a synergistic effect is observed, where the snap-through of membrane 1 triggers the snap-through of membrane 2, ensuring that a large volume (over 70 ml/cycle) can be achieved over a wide range of large adverse pressure gradients. In comparison, the conventional single DE pump's pumping volume rapidly decreased beyond a low adverse pressure gradient of 0.196 kPa. At the pressure difference of 0.98 kPa, the serial DE pump's pumping volume is 4185.1% larger than that of the conventional DE pump. This pumping mechanism is customizable for various pressure ranges and enables a new approach to design DE-based soft pumping devices such as a DE total artificial heart, which requires large-volume pumping over a wide range of pressure difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- *DIELECTRIC materials
*ELASTOMERS
*DEFORMATIONS (Mechanics)
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00218936
- Volume :
- 85
- Issue :
- 10
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Journal of Applied Mechanics
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 131442700
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4040478