On a Physics-Based Model for Nonlinear Sensing in Ionic Polymer Metal Composites

In this paper, we propose a physics-based model of ionic polymer metal composites (IPMCs) charge dynamics in response to dynamic mechanical deformation by developing a perturbation solution of a particular form of the Poisson-Nernst-Planck equations. We derive an equivalent nonlinear circuit model whose components are directly controlled by the imposed mechanical deformation. We show results for a variety of loading scenarios to gather insight on the nonlinear characteristics of IPMC electrical response and its potential application in sensors and energy harvesting devices.