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A tubular dielectric elastomer actuator: fabrication, characterisation and active vibration isolation

A tubular dielectric elastomer actuator: fabrication, characterisation and active vibration isolation
A tubular dielectric elastomer actuator: fabrication, characterisation and active vibration isolation
Physicists and chemists have long sought to develop lightweight materials that grow or shrink significantly in length or volume when subjected to electric stimulation. A new material of this type is Dielectric Electro-Active Polymer (DEAP), which when utilised as an actuator, has the potential to be an effective replacement for many conventional actuators. DEAP has a range of properties that place it somewhere between those of piezoceramics and shape memory alloys (SMA's). DEAP actuators, among many other applications, have the potential to be used in active vibration control (AVC). The overall goal of this work was to investigate the viability of using a DEAP actuator in active vibration isolation (AVI). In the experimental setup, a mass, representing an instrument for example, was intended to be isolated from ground vibration, generated by an electrodynamic shaker, by placing an active isolator (the DEAP actuator) between the shaker and mass. First, this paper introduces the basic characteristics of one type of DEAP material, called PolyPower®. Among the actuator types, constructed from PolyPower material, those having a tubular shape are investigated here. The static and dynamic characteristics of the actuators as well as the frequency response function are of special interest from the AVC point of view, and are investigated for the tubular type PolyPower actuators. Experimental results are presented. Feedforward control approach was used in all experiments. Least mean squared (LMS) adaptive algorithm was used to optimize the control parameters iteratively in order to minimize the displacement of the solid mass caused by the shaker. Three different types of controller, single harmonic controller, double harmonic controller and FIR controller were used for tonal isolation. The implications associated with the actuator?s nonlinearities and the performance of the three controllers was assessed. FIR controller was also used for broadband isolation and the proper choices of its parameters were experimentally determined
deap, tubular actuator, active vibration isolation
Sarban, R.
526ac4ec-e22e-41cb-93f8-8dd73d8bb85a
Mace, B.R.
cfb883c3-2211-4f3a-b7f3-d5beb9baaefe
Rustighi, E.
9544ced4-5057-4491-a45c-643873dfed96
Jones, R.W.
2a2cfb72-4282-441a-919e-c01bda4220b7
Sarban, R.
526ac4ec-e22e-41cb-93f8-8dd73d8bb85a
Mace, B.R.
cfb883c3-2211-4f3a-b7f3-d5beb9baaefe
Rustighi, E.
9544ced4-5057-4491-a45c-643873dfed96
Jones, R.W.
2a2cfb72-4282-441a-919e-c01bda4220b7

Sarban, R., Mace, B.R., Rustighi, E. and Jones, R.W. (2009) A tubular dielectric elastomer actuator: fabrication, characterisation and active vibration isolation. Proceedings of ICAST 20th International Conference on Adaptive Structures and Technologies, Hong Kong, China. 19 - 21 Oct 2009. 12 pp .

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

Physicists and chemists have long sought to develop lightweight materials that grow or shrink significantly in length or volume when subjected to electric stimulation. A new material of this type is Dielectric Electro-Active Polymer (DEAP), which when utilised as an actuator, has the potential to be an effective replacement for many conventional actuators. DEAP has a range of properties that place it somewhere between those of piezoceramics and shape memory alloys (SMA's). DEAP actuators, among many other applications, have the potential to be used in active vibration control (AVC). The overall goal of this work was to investigate the viability of using a DEAP actuator in active vibration isolation (AVI). In the experimental setup, a mass, representing an instrument for example, was intended to be isolated from ground vibration, generated by an electrodynamic shaker, by placing an active isolator (the DEAP actuator) between the shaker and mass. First, this paper introduces the basic characteristics of one type of DEAP material, called PolyPower®. Among the actuator types, constructed from PolyPower material, those having a tubular shape are investigated here. The static and dynamic characteristics of the actuators as well as the frequency response function are of special interest from the AVC point of view, and are investigated for the tubular type PolyPower actuators. Experimental results are presented. Feedforward control approach was used in all experiments. Least mean squared (LMS) adaptive algorithm was used to optimize the control parameters iteratively in order to minimize the displacement of the solid mass caused by the shaker. Three different types of controller, single harmonic controller, double harmonic controller and FIR controller were used for tonal isolation. The implications associated with the actuator?s nonlinearities and the performance of the three controllers was assessed. FIR controller was also used for broadband isolation and the proper choices of its parameters were experimentally determined

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More information

Published date: October 2009
Additional Information: Paper 9146
Venue - Dates: Proceedings of ICAST 20th International Conference on Adaptive Structures and Technologies, Hong Kong, China, 2009-10-19 - 2009-10-21
Keywords: deap, tubular actuator, active vibration isolation

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 79091
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/79091
PURE UUID: 7482aac1-4cee-49fd-ae52-0d09618318f9
ORCID for B.R. Mace: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-3312-4918
ORCID for E. Rustighi: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-9871-7795

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 16 Mar 2010
Last modified: 11 Dec 2021 04:01

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Contributors

Author: R. Sarban
Author: B.R. Mace ORCID iD
Author: E. Rustighi ORCID iD
Author: R.W. Jones

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