Thermodynamically based multiphysic modeling of ionic polymer metal composites

The modeling of the complex response of the IPMC-like body to electrical and mechanical stimuli is set within the context of the 3-D theory of linear elasticity. A field of chemically induced distortions is included in the model; these mechanical distortions and the derivation of the final PDE equations of the multiphysics problem are thermodynamically consistent. Some results of the numerical experiments are revisited through an original analysis of the stress distribution along the IPMC-like body.