Cellophane as a biodegradable electroactive polymer actuator

We present a piezoelectric model and sensitivity analysis for the performance of a cantilevered unimorph cellophane actuator. The model adequately predicts the tip- displacement behavior as a function of the applied voltage. In the sensitivity analysis, the one-at-a-time parameter perturbation approach is used to assess sensitivity of the tip-displacement response to the range of variation of an input parameter. The thickness of the cellophane and the length of actuator are more sensitive than the thickness of elastic layer and the ratio of Young's modulus. Calculations show the estimation of d31 and k31 coefficient values from the model to be 60 pC/N for d31 and 0.44 pC/N for k31. In addition, normalized sensitivity analysis is performed to rank the most influential design parameters. The results indicate that small variations in the cellophane thickness represent the most impact on the tip-displacement response, and the effect of Young's modulus shows the least impact on model responses.