Pneumatic switches work essentially like valves that can control the flow of air. The context for this assignment is to use electrically controlled thermal actuation to direct the flow of air for switching pressure which can be used to guide the insertion tube on an endoscope. Furthermore, to understand the process of heat conduction inside the thermal actuator, analytical analysis is conducted on simple geometries like a slab and a sphere for transient situations like quenching and internal heat generation.
Moreover, these analytical studies are used to perform simulations which are then compared with the FEM model simulations to verify the obtained analytical solutions. Finally, a 3D printed open-top design is made to study the functioning of the heater and the temperature distribution inside the actuator in practice. Using thermocouple measurement and IR thermography, Spatio-temporal temperature distributions of the 3D printed actuator are obtained and compared with the results of the models.
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