Stress-Strain Behaviour of Dielectric Elastomer for Actuators

Abstract:

Dielectric elastomer (DE) is gaining importance for potential strategic and commercial application as actuators. This paper reports the experimental investigation on different mechanical phenomena at large deformation of a commercially available acrylic dielectric elastomer material, VHB 4910 (3M) which is widely used for dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) research. Attempts are made for accurate and precise experimental determination of nonlinear stress-strain, strain rate dependent hysteresis behaviour and cyclic softening of this material. It is observed that with the increase in strain rate maximum stress at a particular strain increases whereas hysteresis loss decreases. In the cyclic loading case after a particular number of cycles almost the hysteresis loss and maximum stress becomes constant. These experimental results are likely to be interesting for the designers for proper designing and characterization of the actuators fabricated with this material.

• Periodical: Applied Mechanics and Materials (Volumes 789-790)
• Pages: 837-841
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.789-790.837
• Online since: September 2015
• Authors: Raj Kumar Sahu, K. Patra, S. Bhaumik, A.K. Pandey, D.K. Setua
• Keywords: Acrylic Rubber, Dielectric Elastomer Actuators, Hysteresis, Large Deformation, Stress Softening

References

[1] Setua, D. K., 2010. Smart Elastomers, in Current Topics in Elastomer Research Ed. Prof. Anil K. Bhowmick, Chapter 10, CRC Press, Florida, USA, pp.276-287.

[2] Moscardo, M., Zhao, X., Suo, Z., Laputs, Y., 2008. On designing dielectric elastomer actuators, Journal of Applied Physics, 104, 093503, pp.1-7.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3000440

[3] Wissler M, Mazza E., 2007. Mechanical behavior of an acrylic elastomers used in dielectric elastomers acxtuators. Sensors and Actuators: A (134), pp.494-504.

DOI: 10.1016/j.sna.2006.05.024

[4] Carpi, F., Rossi, D. De, Kornbluh, R., Pelrine, R., Sommer-Larsen, 2007. P. Dielectric Elastomers as Electromechanical Transducers, Elsevier, Hungry.

DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-08-047488-5.00033-2

[5] Rodkwan, S., 2002. A numerical and experimental investigation of the machinability of elastomers, PhD Thesis, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, North Carolina state University.

[6] Cohen, Y. B., 2004. Electroactive Polymer (EAP) Actuators as Artificial Muscles Reality, Potential and Challenges, SPIE press, USA.

DOI: 10.1117/3.547465

[7] Sahu, R. K., Patra, K., 2013. Estimation of elastic modulus of dielectric elastomer materials using Mooney-Rivlin and Ogden Models, Advanced Materials Research, 685, pp.331-335.

DOI: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.685.331

[8] Sahu, R. K., Patra, K., 2014. Characterization of tensile behavior of a dielectric elastomer at large deformations, Journal of Institution of Engineers (India): Series C, DOI 10. 1007/s40032-014-0119-z.

[9] Patra, K., Sahu, R. K., 2014. A visco-hyperelastic approach to modelling rate-dependent large deformation of a dielectric acrylic elastomers, International Journal of Mechanics and Materials in Design, DOI 10. 1007/s10999-014-9270-1.

DOI: 10.1007/s10999-014-9270-1

[10] Carpi, F., Frediani, G., Nanni, M. and Rossi, D. D. 2011. Granularly Coupled Dielectric Elastomer Actuators, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics 16, pp.16-23.

DOI: 10.1109/tmech.2010.2073714

[11] Bergstrom, J. S., Boyce, M. C., 1998. Constitutive modelling of large strain time-dependent behaviour of elastomers, Journal Mechanics and Physics of Solids 46, pp.931-954.

DOI: 10.1016/s0022-5096(97)00075-6

[12] Diani, J., Fayolle, B., Gilormini, P. 2010. A review on the Mullins effect, European Polymer Journal, 45, p.601–612.

DOI: 10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2008.11.017