Influence of Humidity on Torsional Actuation in Highly Twisted Nylon Fiber
Conference: ACTUATOR 2018 - 16th International Conference on New Actuators
06/25/2018 - 06/27/2018 at Bremen, Deutschland
Proceedings: ACTUATOR 2018
Pages: 4Language: englishTyp: PDF
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Authors:
Yamauchi, T.; Washino, S.; Tanaka, E. (DENSO CORPORATION, Kariya, Japan)
Irisawa, T.; Takagi, K. (Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan)
Shioya, M. (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro-ku, Japan)
Abstract:
Highly twisted polymer fiber (TPF) exhibits torsional actuation induced by thermal contraction. Nylon 6 fibers are often used for this type of actuator in many research projects because they generate large-scale actuation. Generally, nylon materials absorb water from the atmosphere easily, which changes the material properties of the nylon. However, previous studies have not explored the effect of the humidity, which may change the material properties and the actuation characteristics. In this project, we investigated the effects of humidity on the torsional actuation of Nylon 6 and Nylon 610 TPF experimentally. The torsional angle of both the Nylon 6 and Nylon 610 TPF increased with humidity. Nylon 6 TPF was influenced by humidity changes more strongly than Nylon 610 TPF; the torsional angle of Nylon 6 TPF increased 220% when the humidity changed from 25 %RH to 95 %RH, while the torsional angle of Nylon 610 TPF increased by only 20%.