Fluid-structure interaction modelling of a soft pneumatic actuator

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Authors

This paper presents a fully coupled fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulation model of a soft pneumatic actuator (SPA). Previous research on modelling and simulation of SPAs mostly involves finite element modelling (FEM), in which the fluid pressure is considered as pressure load uniformly acting on the internal walls of the actuator. However, FEM modelling does not capture the physics of the fluid flow inside an SPA. An accurate modelling of the physical behaviour of an SPA requires a two-way FSI analysis that captures and transfers information from fluid to solid and vice versa. Furthermore, the investigation of the fluid flow inside the flow channels and chambers of the actuator are vital for an understanding of the fluid energy distribution and the prediction of the actuator performance. The FSI modelling is implemented on a typical SPA and the flow behaviour inside the actuator is presented. Moreover, the bending behaviour of the SPA from the FSI simulation results is compared with a corresponding FEM simulation.

Original languageEnglish
Article number163
JournalActuators
Volume10
Issue number7
Number of pages17
ISSN2076-0825
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15.07.2021
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Acknowledgments: This publication was supported by the funding programme “Open Access Publishing” of Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

    Research areas

  • Fluid-structure interaction (FSI), Hyperelastic material, Pneumatic networks (PneuNets), Soft pneumatic actuator (SPA)
  • Engineering

DOI