Abstract
This paper presents the design, development, and testing of an active
textile-based wearable compression device that is capable of delivering
a controlled pulsatile compression. The device uses low spring index
nickel titanium (NiTi) coil actuators to produce an applied dynamic
pressure of up to 5.5 kPa. The selected NiTi coil actuators produce
pressure when thermally stimulated with Joule heating via an applied
current (0.3 A), and generate recoverable strains up to 75% in
extension. An optical fiber strain sensor was developed to monitor the
textile strain and enable the indirect estimation of the applied
pressure. A new approach using a passive NiBR spring (in parallel with
the NiTi actuators) was also developed to assist the NiTi coils in
recovering the detwinned martensite form after cooling. The pressure
distribution around a rigid cylindrical shape was also evaluated,
showing higher applied pressures (5.5 kPa) where the NiTi coil actuators
were located. The strain sensor exhibits high accuracy compared to a
reference commercial sensor (as indicated by the high correlation
indexes of up to 0.97 between compression cycle measurements with both
solutions).
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1464-1472 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics |
Volume | 24 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 10 2019 |