Dynamics of Fluid Driven Autonomous Materials: Interconnected Fluid Filled Cavities to Realize Autonomous Materials

The study of elastic structures embedded with fluid-filled cavities received considerable attention in fields such as autonomous materials, sensors, actuators, and smart systems. This work studies an elastic beam embedded with a set of fluid-filled bladders, similar to a honeycomb structure, which are interconnected via an array of slender tubes. The configuration of the connecting tubes is arbitrary, and each tube may connect any two bladders. Beam deformation both creates, and is induced by, the internal viscous flow- and pressure-fields which deform the bladders and thus the surrounding solid. Applying concepts from poroelasticity, and leveraging Cosserat beam large-deformation models, we obtain a set of three coupled equations relating the fluidic pressure within the bladders to the large transverse and longitudinal displacements of the beam. We show that by changing the viscous resistance of the connecting tubes we are able to modify the amplitude of oscillatory deformation modes created due to external excitations on the structure. In addition, rearranging tube configuration in a given bladder system is shown to add an additional degree of control, and generate varying mode shapes for the same external excitation. The presented modified Cosserat model is applied to analyze a previously suggested energy harvester configuration and estimate the efficiency of such a device. The results of this work are validated by a transient three-dimensional numerical study of the full fluid-structure-interaction problem. The presented model allows for the analysis and design of soft smart-metamaterials with unique mechanical properties. Keywords: autonomous materials, adaptive materials, programmed materials, smart systems, autonomous systems, soft matter, soft robotics, energy harvesting, fluid dynamics, fluid-structure interaction, large deformation.
Comment: 49 pages, 16 figures, 2 tables