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Multimaterial 3D Printed Soft Actuators Powered by Shape Memory Alloy Wires

Akbari, Saeed, Sakhaei, Amir Hosein, Panjwani, Sahil, Kowsari, Kavin, Serjouei, Ahmad, Ge, Qi (2019) Multimaterial 3D Printed Soft Actuators Powered by Shape Memory Alloy Wires. Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, 290 . pp. 177-189. ISSN 0924-4247. (doi:10.1016/j.sna.2019.03.015) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:78236)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided. (Contact us about this Publication)
Official URL:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sna.2019.03.015

Abstract

Shape memory alloys (SMAs) have been widely used to fabricate soft actuators by embedding SMA wires into various soft matrices manufactured by conventional moulding methods or novel three-dimensional (3D) printing techniques. However, soft matrices of SMA based actuators are typically fabricated from only one or two different materials. Here, we exploit the great manufacturing flexibility of multimaterial 3D printing to fabricate various bending, twisting and extensional actuators by precisely controlling the spatial arrangements of different printing materials with different stiffnesses. In order to achieve a broad range of deformations, ten different printing materials were characterized and used in the actuators design. In addition, we developed a finite element model to simulate complex deformations of the printed actuators and facilitate the design process. The model incorporates a user defined material subroutine that describes the nonlinear temperature dependant behavior of SMAs. The results show the efficiency and flexibility of multimaterial 3D printing in tailoring the deformed shape of the SMA based soft actuators, which cannot be accomplished using conventional manufacturing methods such as moulding.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1016/j.sna.2019.03.015
Uncontrolled keywords: 3D printing; shape memory alloy; soft actuator; finite element modeling
Subjects: T Technology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences > School of Engineering and Digital Arts
Depositing User: Amirhosein Sakhaei
Date Deposited: 04 Nov 2019 13:29 UTC
Last Modified: 04 Mar 2024 19:18 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/78236 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Sakhaei, Amir Hosein.

Creator's ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6953-552X
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