Constitutive Functions for Active Complaint Materials

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD

Investigators

Abstract

9909214 There is a tremendous growth in technologies associated with microdevices using active polymers for microfluidics and microrobotics applications. This SGER project uses a coupled experimental and analytical approach to provide the constitutive descriptions necessary for systematic design using compliant active materials. A novel Biaxial System for Active Materials (BSAM) is being developed to measure the finite deformations of thin films of such materials, including hyperelastic and viscoelastic behavior and active response under mechanical load, by measuring local deformation and applied force histories while controlling the trajectory in stretch space. Criscione invariants will be used to characterize the hyperelastic potentials.