Development of a novel tubular dielectric elastomer pump for low power bio-mimetic applications
Dielectric elastomer (DE) actuators are low power, soft, electrically actuated 'artificial muscles' that offer the potential to emulate many of the actuators found in nature; including biological pumps such as cilia and peristaltic tubes. However, a low power pump based on tubular DE actua...
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University of Bristol
2015
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| Online Access: | http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.683401 |
| Summary: | Dielectric elastomer (DE) actuators are low power, soft, electrically actuated 'artificial muscles' that offer the potential to emulate many of the actuators found in nature; including biological pumps such as cilia and peristaltic tubes. However, a low power pump based on tubular DE actuators is yet to have been produced. The literature describes several approaches towards achieving pumps based on soft actuators; however the majority of these are diaphragm pumps which are susceptible to bubbles and can be difficult to clean, leading to clogging and contamination. Meanwhile, the tubular pumps developed in the literature based on different types of actuator have suffered from low actuation speeds and limited output flowrates. |
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