Electroactive Polymers (EAP): Volume 600

Front Cover
Q. M. Zhang, Takeo Furukawa, Yoseph Bar-Cohen, J. Scheinbeim
Cambridge University Press, Jul 17, 2000 - Technology & Engineering - 358 pages
For many years, electroactive ceramic, magnetostrictive material and shape memory alloys have been the primary source of actuation materials for manipulation and mobility systems. Electroactive polymers (EAPs) received relatively little attention due to their limited capability. However, effective EAP materials have emerged, changing the paradigm of these materials' capability and potential. Their main attractive characteristic is the operation similarity to biological muscles, where under electrical excitation a large displacement is induced. The potential to operate biologically inspired mechanisms using EAPs as artificial muscles and organs offers exciting applications. This book promotes technical exchange of EAP research and development, as well as provides a forum for progress reports. Generally, two groups of materials are covered-dry EAPs and wet EAPs. While overall the dry types require high voltage for their operation, they also provide larger mechanical energy density and can hold a displacement under a DC voltage. Topics include: applications; ferroelectric polymers; piezoelectric, electrostrictive, and dielectric elastomers; conductive polymers; polymer gels and muscles and composites and others.

From inside the book

Contents

Compliant Actuators Based on Electroactive Polymers
3
Challenges to the Transition to the Practical Application
13
Structure Properties and Applications of Single Crystalline
23
Copyright

41 other sections not shown

Common terms and phrases

Bibliographic information