Artificial muscle fibers , electrically

In addition to their potential use as structural composites, these macroscopic assemblies of nanocarbons have shown promise as mechanical sensors [83], artificial muscles [84], capacitors [85], electrical wires [59], battery elements [85], dye-sensitized solar cells [86], transparent conductors [87], etc. What stands out is not only the wide range of properties of these type of materials but also the possibility of engineering them to produce such diverse structures, ranging from transparent films to woven fibers. This versatility derives from their hierarchical structure consisting of multiple nano building blocks that are assembled from bottom to top. 

The experimental data support the hypothesis that A band lattice of myosin filaments in the skinned fiber is an electrically balanced liquid crystal. However, in the presence of a viable cell membrane (sarcolemma) or an artificial phase boundary (such as polyvinylpirrolidone (M.Ws. 10,000, 40,000) in the skinned fiber preparation) the A band lattice behavior is markedly different and does not conform to the electically balanced condition (2,3) This is due to the presence of a Donnan-osmotic steady state which operates across the cell membrane and limits the volume of the muscle fiber. 

It is well known that human muscles are made of many bundles of muscle fibers and their anisotropic contractions are induced by electric stimulus. To construct artificial muscles, crosslinked PLCP fibers were fabricated due to their high mechanical flexibility [40]. As shown in Figure 7.18, crosslinked PLCP fibers wifh high orientational order of the mesogens along the fiber axis were fabricated. 

Schreyer, H., Gebhart, N., Kim, K. and Shahinpoor, M. (2000) Electrical activation of artificial muscles containing polyacrylonitrile gel fibers. Biomacromolecules, 1, 642-7. 

Thus bending can occur due to differential contraction and expansion of outer most remote fibers of a strip if an electric field is imposed across its thickness as shown below in Figures 1 and 2. Numerical solutions to the above set of dynamic equations are presently underway and will be reported later. However, it must be mentioned that the governing equations (IH ) Asplay a set of highly non-linear dynamic equations of motion for the IPMC artificial muscles. 

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