Dr. John B. Blottman Profile

Dr. John B. Blottman

Engineer at Naval Undersea Warfare Ctr

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Publications (3)

Proceedings Article | 4 April 2012 Paper

Biologically inspired highly efficient buoyancy engine

Barbar Akle, Wassim Habchi, Rita Abdelnour, John Blottman, Donald Leo

Proceedings Volume 8339, 83390O (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.916075

KEYWORDS: Electrodes, Ions, Sensors, Water, Modulation, Bladder, Silver, Distributed computing, Organisms, Ion exchange

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Undersea distributed networked sensor systems require a miniaturization of platforms and a means of both spatial and temporal persistence. One aspect of this system is the necessity to modulate sensor depth for optimal positioning and station-keeping. Current approaches involve pneumatic bladders or electrolysis; both require mechanical subsystems and consume significant power. These are not suitable for the miniaturization of sensor platforms. Presented in this study is a novel biologically inspired method that relies on ionic motion and osmotic pressures to displace a volume of water from the ocean into and out of the proposed buoyancy engine. At a constant device volume, the displaced water will alter buoyancy leading to either sinking or floating. The engine is composed of an enclosure sided on the ocean's end by a Nafion ionomer and by a flexible membrane separating the water from a gas enclosure. Two electrodes are placed one inside the enclosure and the other attached to the engine on the outside. The semi-permeable membrane Nafion allows water motion in and out of the enclosure while blocking anions from being transferred. The two electrodes generate local concentration changes of ions upon the application of an electrical field; these changes lead to osmotic pressures and hence the transfer of water through the semi-permeable membrane. Some aquatic organisms such as pelagic crustacean perform this buoyancy control using an exchange of ions through their tissue to modulate its density relative to the ambient sea water. In this paper, the authors provide an experimental proof of concept of this buoyancy engine. The efficiency of changing the engine's buoyancy is calculated and optimized as a function of electrode surface area. For example electrodes made of a 3mm diameter Ag/AgCl proved to transfer approximately 4mm3 of water consuming 4 Joules of electrical energy. The speed of displacement is optimized as a function of the surface area of the Nafion membrane and its thickness. The 4mm3 displaced volume obtained with the Ag/AgCl electrodes required approximately 380 seconds. The thickness of the Nafion membrane is 180μm and it has an area of 133mm3.

Proceedings Article | 29 March 2011 Paper

Design and development of bio-inspired underwater jellyfish like robot using ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC) actuators

Barbar Akle, Joseph Najem, Donald Leo, John Blottman

Proceedings Volume 7976, 797624 (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.881993

KEYWORDS: Actuators, Electrodes, Polymers, Metals, Ions, Liquids, Gold, Composites, Robotics, Transducers

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Proceedings Article | 19 May 2006 Paper

The Jellyfish: smart electro-active polymers for an autonomous distributed sensing node

John Blottman, Roger Richards

Proceedings Volume 6231, 62311E (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.673124

KEYWORDS: Polymers, Electroactive polymers, Sensors, Acoustics, Wind energy, Energy harvesting, Warfare, Artificial muscles, Ferroelectric polymers, Electroluminescence

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