| dc.description.abstract | Using Soft materials in the design and fabrication of new devices andstructures that can carry out various tasks became appealing. While thedifferent properties of materials (e.g., mechanical, thermal, electronic,optical, etc.) can be combined to achieve some functionality for specificdevices, using soft materials and their special characters can bring uniquefunctionality for the devices which may not be fabricated from rigid structures.Choosing proper characteristics of soft material and use thoseproperties in a proper design and combine the different characters of variousmaterials can bring novel devices and tools to existing to handle new applicationsfrom safe handling and manipulation of a fragile specimen, to medicalapplications, to sustainability and green energy harvesting. In this research, a micro-scale hydraulic/pneumatic soft gripperdeveloped, and the handling of live specimens demonstrated. This gripper wasbuilt with PDMS using the molding technique. From the optical characterizationunder the microscope, the bending-volume specification was determined, and theforce-volume characterization achieved by using a micro force sensor. Thesimulation of the structure was done using Abaqus software. Thecharacterization and simulations showed a good level of agreement.In addition, in this research, a new soft wave energy converter (SWEC) is developed, as a new platform, by combining soft material and piezoelectric fibers. Withthe abundance of ocean coverage on the earth, wave energy conversion platformscan provide a high percentage of green energy demands. Currently, there are multiple types of wave energy convertersthat have drawbacks like being very large, require a high cost of deployment and maintenance. To decrease the maintenance costand increase the power generation efficiency, we proposed to develop a SWEC byintegrating soft material with piezoelectric fibers as a low-cost, maintenance-free device. A Macro Fiber Composite and bubble wraps, for floatation, areintegrated into a soft elastomer Ecoflex sheet. The power generation efficiencyof the developed devices has been investigated in a wave flume tank and their conversion abilityfrom water waves has been proved. Thepromising wave energy harvesting capability combined with low cost and nomaintenance can impact the SWECs platforms development and their real-world applications. | en |
