Voltage-induced deformation in soft dielectric elastomers

Keywords: Soft dielectric, electro-elasticity, non-linear finite element, instability
Soft dielectric elastomers have aroused considerable interest in both research and industrial communities. Applications of elastomers include artificial muscle actuators , adaptive optics and energy harvesting.The basics of electro-elasticity have been highlighted by Toupin(1).We have modelled the behaviour of a soft deformable dielectric body under the combined effect of mechanical loading and electric field through non-linear finite element analysis.These materials are capable of large voltage-induced deformation, but achieving it in practice poses serious challenge due to electromechanical instability and electric breakdown. Our work is based on ideal dielectric elastomers. We precisely point out the extent of harnessing voltage-induced deformation in case of a soft cylindrical actuator and the suitable applications where such precise control is required. Additional results show an effective way of utilising the “snap through” phenomena in such actuators. The computations are carried out in Abaqus Software in conjunction with user-subroutine UEL in order to invoke the coupling effect in our problem.
References:
1) Richard Toupin.The Elastic Dielectric. J. Rational Mech. Anal., 5:849-915, 1956.