Study, Design And Analysis OfH2 Gas Actuated Pneumatic Artificial Muscle Using Metal Hydride as Gas Storage Medium

This report contains all the necessary infonnation gathered from literature review and
other technical sources to carry out this project. The aim of this project is to study,
design and analyse H2 Gas Actuated Pneumatic Artificial Muscle (PAM) using Metal
Hydride as the hydrogen storage medium. Studies and design on this project is intended
to assist disabled and paralysed people physically. This project portrays an actuation
system to idealise a more flexible mechanical system, which has longer serving-life,
ability to deliver high force-to-weight ratio, and less mechanical wear compared to
pneumatic piston cylinder actuator. The research discusses the ability, type, and
quantity of metal hydride to store and release hydrogen to actuate the PAM. It also
discusses the maximum amount of hydrogen gas that is needed for the actuation and
hydrogen storage for 30mm diameter of BP AM. The validity of this actuation in the
aspect of contraction/expansion is modeled with Finite Element ANSYS simulation for
3 diameters that are OD= IOmm, 20mm and 30mm. Design of functional prototype of
prosthesis arm is shown with Catia V5RI2 3D modeling. This paper defmes PAM with
a diameter of 30mm and length of 140mm is capable to produce 10.20% contraction
with only 1.2g of sodium aluminium hydride. It gives 10.20% axial contraction i.e. from
140mm to 125.7lmm that is more than PAM with OD of lOmm and 20mm.
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