Development of polymer artificial muscle structures for treatment of bladder disorders

In this study, the possibilities of using polymeric artificial muscles in the treatment of bladder dysfunction were investigated. For this purpose, twisted and coiled artificial muscles (TCA) were produced and the effects of production parameters such as fiber type, mandrel diameter, use of multiple muscles, use of ply yarn, heat treatment conditions, actuation load on actuation performances of theses muscles were investigated. In addition, two different novel methods have been applied to increase the performance of mandrel type muscles. The first method is to apply an additional heat treatment to the stretched mandrel muscles and the second method is to attach an additional fiber of the desired thickness to the muscle fiber while winding it onto the mandrel. As a result of increasing the coil spacing of the muscles in both techniques, higher performance muscles were obtained compared to production with the conventional method. For actuation of these non-conductive muscles with electric current, a conductive steel thread was inserted through the mandrel-type muscles. This novel and practical technique provided higher and better actuation than the methods reported in the literature. After obtaining the appropriate muscles, various bladder prototypes were designed and as a result of the data obtained, a final prototype similar to the real bladder structure was developed. In this final prototype homochiral muscles were used in replacement of detrusor muscles which provide the contraction function in the bladder, and heterochiral muscles were used in replacement of sphincter muscles which provide the relaxation function for urine evacuation. The developed bladder prototip successfully operates with time and pressure values of human bladder