Driving response analysis of twisted and coiled polymer actuators by considering the viscoelastic behavior of their precursor fibers

Twisted and coiled polymer actuators (TCPA) represent a type of artificial muscle predominantly composed of viscoelastic polymers in their precursor fibers. An integral form of the viscoelastic constitutive model has been developed to predict the mechanical deformation of the precursor fibers. The model successfully accounts for the first-cycle effect and the creep deformation near the glass transition temperature of the precursor fibers. Combined with the multilayer model by Gao and Wang (2024 Smart Mater. Struct. 33 045031), which predicts the effective mechanical and thermal properties of TCPA, the proposed viscoelastic constitutive model accurately predicts the thermo-mechanical response of TCPA under the heating and cooling cycle and applied loads. It is noted that the driving strain of TCPA is sensitive to the heating and cooling cycles. When the cycle duration is short, the proposed viscoelastic model can be simplified to a linear elastic model. The numerical implementation of the viscoelastic constitutive model is detailed, with validation conducted on two polymer materials, polypropylene, and polyamide 66. The proposed constitutive model can effectively predict the driving response of TCPA under complex loading conditions.