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A helical actuator driven by biased SMA: design, model, and experiment

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Abstract

A helical actuator driven by biased shape memory alloy (SMA) patterns embedded into a soft composite ribbon base is presented in this work. Instead of common U-shape SMA wires, a single SMA wire is woven into planar patterns, which enable helical deformation of the composite ribbon from an initially flat geometry. An analytical static model is established for accurate and rapid prediction of the helical reconfiguration arising from the shape memory effect of woven SMA patterns, followed by validation of the static model using the finite element method (FEM). The finite element results are compared with the analytical solutions given by this static model, which show a high agreement. Parametric study of the influences of eight independent design variables on the dependent helical parameters, such as combined curvatures, pitches, and helical angles, is completed. It is found that the helically deformed geometry is mainly dominated by diameters, biased positions, inclined angles, and numbers of skewed segments of the SMA wire. Fabrication and in-situ experimental test of a prototype of such helical actuators qualitatively demonstrate its dramatic three-dimensional (3D) spiral reconfiguration from a two-dimensional (2D) flat ribbon. Such SMA patterns will allow more diverse designs of soft actuators for a wider range of robotic applications.

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Acknowledgements

National College Students Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program, China (02210422120), Postdoctoral Innovation Project of Shandong Province, China (202101004), Youth Project of Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province, China (ZR2021QE077), and Major Basic Research Program of the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province, China (ZR2019ZD08) have in part supported this research. The research was in part carried out at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN), Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), which is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Contract No. DE-SC0012704.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan, China

    Kecai Xie, Chengyang Li, Shouyu Sun, Zhongjing Ren, Haipeng Wang & Peng Yan

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, USA

    Yong Shi

  3. Downstate Medical Center, State University of New York, Brooklyn, USA

    Sundeep Mangla

  4. Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, USA

    Chang-Yong Nam

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  1. Kecai Xie
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Correspondence to Zhongjing Ren or Peng Yan.

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Xie, K., Li, C., Sun, S. et al. A helical actuator driven by biased SMA: design, model, and experiment. Acta Mech 234, 2659–2676 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00707-023-03510-9

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