A small scale viscometer based on an IPMC actuator and an IPMC sensor

The vibrational characteristics of a cantilever beam strongly depend on the fluid in which the beam is immersed. In this paper, this property is exploited to show the possibility to realize a small scale viscometer based on Electro-Active Polymers. More specifically, two IPMCs (Ionic Polymer Metal Composites) strips, one as actuator and one as sensor are adopted; the IPMC actuator is used to impose a vibration to the whole system, the IPMC sensor is used to measure the amplitude and the frequency of the deflection. A model of the device is presented along with its experimental validation on sucrose solutions.