Electromechanical Responses of Dielectric Elastomers

Abstract

Electroactive polymers (EAPs) have been widely employed as smart material for actuation and sensing in recent years. Dielectric elastomers (DEs) are a type of smart material which belongs to the class of EAPs. Their applications include soft sensing and actuation which require high sensitivity, flexibility and stretchability. They can be actuated under electric field responding to an electrostatic force. Compared with other electrical actuation technologies, the advantages of dielectric elastomer actuators include lightweight, good compliancy, high energy density, large actuation strain, quiet operation and low cost. The current research focuses on the electro-mechanical actuating behaviour of DEs embedded with composite using finite element approach. Analyses are carried out with three different support conditions of the composite, on which the elastomer is mounted, and with varying thickness and positions of elastomer on the composite at various voltage levels. Results indicate that strain in the composites increases with a decrease in the thickness of the elastomer.