An investigation on electromechanical stability of dielectric elastomers undergoing large deformation

Abstract

Dielectric elastomers are one of the important electroactive polymers used as actuators in adaptive structures due to their outstanding ability to generate very large deformations when subjected to an external electric field. In this paper, the Mooney-Rivlin elastic strain energy function with two material constants is used to analyze the electromechanical stability performance of a dielectric elastomer. This elastic strain energy together with the electric energy incorporating linear permittivity are the main items to construct the free energy of the system. Particular numerical results are also calculated for a further understanding of the dielectric elastomer's typical stability performance. The proposed model offers great help in guiding the design and fabrication of actuators featuring dielectric elastomers.

Improving the electromechanical performance of dielectric elastomers using silicone rubber and dopamine coated barium titanate

“…Further, in order to investigate the relation between voltage and strain, numerous hyperelastic strain energy functions, such as the Neo-Hooken [18], Mooney-Rivlin [19], Ogden [20], Yeoh [21] and Gent [22,23] models have been widely used to mathematically simulate DE behaviour. As the volume of a DE is assumed to be constant (Poisson's ratio ν ≈ 0.5) irrespective of whether a high voltage is applied or not, the area strain (s a ) has a simple relationship with the thickness strain as given by Eq.…”

Effect of mechanical force field on the electromechanical stability of dielectric elastomers

“…Recent years have seen extensive and in-depth studies of the stability analysis of dielectric elastomer . When a voltage is applied on the dielectric elastomer film, the voltage will cause the film to become thinner [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]. As a result, the same voltage will induce a higher electric field and further cause the dielectric elastomer film to become thinner.…”

The characterization of silicone type dielectric elastomer filled with nano sized BaTiO3particles

“…They are used as actuators in adaptive structures due to their abilities to generate very large deformations while subjected to external electric filed [11][12][13][14][15]. Due to having attractive advantages such as large deformation, high elastic energy density, fast response and long fatigue life, they have great potential in mechatronic and biomimetic applications [16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Normally, the typical actuator made from dielectric elastomers is a type of sandwich structure, i.e.…”