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This article analytically investigates the temperature influence on the performance of laterally constrained dielectric elastomer actuators. The effects of both temperature and stretches on the permittivity are taken into consideration. The governing equations of state are established by modeling the actuator as a thermodynamic system of three degrees of freedom. Various failure modes, including electromechanical instability, electric breakdown, loss of tension, and tensile rupture are considered to restrict the operation state and to determine the region of allowable state. Numerical calculations are performed to depict the variations of some important physical quantities with generalized coordinates and to gain insight on the influence of temperature on the critical curves of failures. It is shown that the temperature has obvious effects on the operation state and the allowable region. The present results can be used for designing and optimizing an actuator, and the present approach can be extended to other kinds of dielectric elastomer actuators with complex geometries.

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