State space mathematical modeling for mechanoelectrical transduction of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) based sensors

Abstract

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) gels have been studied in some detail and exhibit mechanoelectrical transduction properties, making these materials suitable for sensing applications. This study aims to investigate these mechanoelectrical properties through mathematical modeling. A nonlinear gray-box hybrid state space approach can accurately model the mechanoelectrical transduction properties of the PVC gel sensor in both transient and steady state responses. This approach studies multiple nonlinearities in both transient and steady state mechanoelectrical responses such as overshoot variation and signal attenuation. Mechanoelectrical polarity inversion for tensile/compressive loading schemes exhibited in experimental testing is also investigated in the nonlinear model. A simplified linearized model also shows accurate results for the linear region of mechanoelectrical responses in the PVC gel sensors. Further mathematical modeling aims to describe some underlying physics and governing equations of the mechanoelectrical properties of PVC gel sensors.