Modelling and Analysis of Thermomechanical Behaviour in Composite Bimorph Actuator

Abstract

This paper presents study of a thermomechanical bimorph actuator, constituted by layers of polymer composite material. The proposed bimorph consists of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and carbon black-polydimethylsiloxane (CB-PDMS) polymer composite layered structure. The thermomechanical response of the PDMS and CB-PDMS material is studied. Deflection of bimorph for change in temperature is studied for different thickness and volume percentage of CB bimorph. Three different thicknesses and three volume fractions of CB are used for analysis of bimorph. Deflections of the bimorph are obtained from two different approaches analytical and FE. The modelling of bimorph carried out using multi-physics (FE) software. Results obtained from above approaches are agreeing well with different volume fractions of CB and thickness. It is observed that the bimorph with higher amount of CB has larger deflection. An optimum deflection achieved in an equal layer of bimorph actuators. In this study, the largest displacement noticed at 6 mm thick CB-PDMS layer with 5 Vol% of carbon black filler.