Abstract
This paper proposes the principle of an expansion mechanism using the deformation of a flexible gel membrane. This mechanism is developed for simulation of deforming crystalline lens in human eyeball. The crystalline lens is soft and convex. The thickness of the crystalline lens varies according to the expansion/shrink of surrounding biological tissue. We propose the mechanism to simulate the deformation using the soft and circular gel membrane. The simulated crystalline lens is surrounded by soft and thin gel membrane. If the mechanism is compared to a sunny-side up egg, simulated crystalline lens is the yellow of the egg and gel membrane is the white of the egg. The outer edge of the membrane is fixed. When a hollow cylinder pushes the membrane, the circular boundary between simulated crystalline lens and the membrane is expanded and the radius of the lens becomes larger. The cross-sectional shape of the membrane is expected to affect its deformation characteristic. Near-future 3D printing technologies will enables the complex shapes of the gel. Better shape of the membrane will be able to be selected using the mechanics of elasticity.
