Finite element analysis of electroactive polymer and magnetoactive elastomer based actuation for origami folding

Abstract

The incorporation of smart materials such as electroactive polymers and magnetoactive elastomers in origami structures can result in active folding using external electric and magnetic stimuli, showing promise in many origami-inspired engineering applications. In this study, 3D finite element analysis (FEA) models are developed using COMSOL Multiphysics software for three configurations that incorporate a combination of active and passive material layers, namely: (1) a single-notch unimorph folding configuration actuated using only external electric field, (2) a double-notch unimorph folding configuration actuated using only external electric field, and (3) a bifold configuration which is actuated using multi-field (electric and magnetic) stimuli. The objectives of the study are to verify the effectiveness of the FEA models to simulate folding behavior and to investigate the influence of geometric parameters on folding quality. Equivalent mechanical pressure and surface stress are used as external loads in the FEA to simulate electric and magnetic fields, respectively. Compared quantitatively with experimental data, FEA captured the folding performance of electric actuation well for notched configurations and magnetic actuation for a bifold structure, but underestimated electric actuation for the bifold structure. By investigating the impact of geometric parameters and locations to place smart materials, FEA can be used in design, avoiding trial-and-error iterations of experiments.

Finite element analysis of electroactive and magnetoactive coupled behaviors in multi-field origami structures

“…From Figure 16 we can see that localized deformation, that is, folding, happens within the regions of the two notches in both experiments and FEA. At high electric fields, such as 50 and 55 MV/m, larger folding angles occur at the upper notch than at the lower notch, demonstrating that a longer notch will lead to larger folding angle at a specified field, which agrees with the conclusion from previous study (Zhang et al, 2017). Compared with the single-notch configuration, the notch close to the root in the finger model undergoes similar folding angle, while the notch close to the tip folds as well, realizing a larger deformation and a more complex folded shape.…”

4D Multiscale Origami Soft Robots: A Review

“…Many simulation software packages, such as finite element analysis (FEA)-based ABAQUS (Daussault Systèmes SE, Paris, France), ANSYS (Ansys, Inc., Canonsburg, PA, USA), and COMSOL Multiphysics (COMSOL Inc., Burlington, MA, USA), have been widely adopted to analyze the material properties and geometric factors to understand the precise performance of origami soft robots [ 144 ]. By adopting these simulation software packages, diverse computational origami-shape reconfiguration studies have focused on structural deformation through folding simulations [ 74 , 145 , 146 , 147 , 148 ], flat state structure deformation according to the crease pattern [ 128 , 149 , 150 , 151 ], transformation by stimuli, such as pneumatic actuators [ 86 , 152 , 153 ], and energy efficiency according to the structure design [ 154 ].…”

Embedded Actuation for Shape-Adaptive Origami

“…Physical realisation of these actuators in origami structures could take many forms, from tendons [13] or magnets [14] pulling points together, to smart materials such as shape memory polymers or alloys providing a moment along the folds [15,16]. The focus of this paper is not to faithfully reproduce any one of these methods, but instead to explore a methodology by which the optimal positions of these actuators can be selected.…”