TY - JOUR
T1 - High-performance structure of a coil-shaped soft-actuator consisting of polymer threads and carbon nanotube yarns
AU - Inoue, Hirotaka
AU - Yoshiyama, Takayuki
AU - Hada, Masaki
AU - Chujo, Daiki
AU - Saito, Yoshitaka
AU - Nishikawa, Takeshi
AU - Yamashita, Yoshifumi
AU - Takarada, Wataru
AU - Matsumoto, Hidetoshi
AU - Hayashi, Yasuhiko
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank Prof. Shuji Tsuruoka at Shinshu University for valuable discussions on the study. This work was supported by the Saitama Industrial Promotion Public Corporation and partially supported by the JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers 17K20065 and 18H01708.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Author(s).
PY - 2018/7/1
Y1 - 2018/7/1
N2 - We fabricated thermally driven metal-free soft-actuators consisting of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) threads as the actuator and carbon nanotube (CNT) yarns as the heating source. The mechanical force, displacement, and response behavior of various structures of the coil-shaped soft-actuators were characterized. The actuation performance of the soft-actuators containing a homogeneous arrangement of PET threads and CNT yarns in their cross-sectional profile was the highest. The results of the calculations based on the heat diffusion equations indicated that inhomogeneous heat generation in the soft-actuator causes parts of the actuator to remain unheated and this interferes with the mechanical motions. Homogeneous thermal distribution in the soft-actuators, namely, the use of a multifilament structure, yields the highest performance in terms of the mechanical force and displacement.
AB - We fabricated thermally driven metal-free soft-actuators consisting of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) threads as the actuator and carbon nanotube (CNT) yarns as the heating source. The mechanical force, displacement, and response behavior of various structures of the coil-shaped soft-actuators were characterized. The actuation performance of the soft-actuators containing a homogeneous arrangement of PET threads and CNT yarns in their cross-sectional profile was the highest. The results of the calculations based on the heat diffusion equations indicated that inhomogeneous heat generation in the soft-actuator causes parts of the actuator to remain unheated and this interferes with the mechanical motions. Homogeneous thermal distribution in the soft-actuators, namely, the use of a multifilament structure, yields the highest performance in terms of the mechanical force and displacement.
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U2 - 10.1063/1.5033487
DO - 10.1063/1.5033487
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85050186563
SN - 2158-3226
VL - 8
JO - AIP Advances
JF - AIP Advances
IS - 7
M1 - 075316
ER -