@inproceedings{31511,
  author = {Behrouz Tavakol and Michael Bozlar and Guillaume Froehlicher and Christian Punckt and Howard A. Stone and Ilhan A. Aksay and Douglas P. Holmes},
  title = {Buckling Instability of Dielectric Elastomeric Plates for Soft, Bio-Compatible Microfluidic Pumps},
  abstract = { <p>
	Dielectric elastomers are well-known for their superior<br>stretchability and permittivity. A fully-clamped thin elastomer will buckle when it<br>is compressed by applying sufficient electric potentials to its sides. When embedded<br>within soft, silicone rubbers, these advanced materials can provide a means for a biocompatible<br>pumping mechanism that can be used to inject bio-fluids with desired<br>flow rates into microfluidic devices, tissues, and organs of interest. We have incorporated<br>a dielectric film that is sandwiched between two thin, flexible, solid electrodes<br>into a microfluidic device and utilized a voltage-induced out-of-plane buckling instability<br>for pumping of fluids. We experimentally quantify the voltage-induced plate<br>buckling and measure the fluid flow rate when the structure is embedded in a microchannel.<br>Additionally, we offer an analytical prediction that uses plate buckling<br>theory to estimate the flow rate as a function of applied voltage.
</p>
 },
  year = {2013},
  journal = {American Physical Society},
  month = {03/2013},
  address = {Baltimore, MD},
  language = {eng},
}