Robotic Materials

Modeling Guided Design of Dielectric Elastomer Generators and Actuators

2012

Conference Paper

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Mechanical energy and electrical energy can be converted to each other by using a dielectric elastomer transducer. Large voltage-induced deformation has been a major challenge in the practical applications. The voltage-induced deformation of dielectric elastomer is restricted by electromechanical instability (EMI) and electric breakdown. We study the loading path effect of dielectric elastomer and introduce various methods to achieve giant deformation in dielectric elastomer and demonstrate the principles of operation in experiments. We use a computational model to analyze the operation of DE generators and actuators to guide the experiment. In actuator mode, we get three designing parameters to vary the actuation response of the device, and realize giant deformation with appropriate parameter group. In the generator mode, energy flows in a device with inhomogeneous deformation is demonstrated.

Author(s): Tiefeng Li and Shaoxing Qu and Christoph Keplinger and Rainer Kaltseis and Richard Baumgartner and Siegfried Bauer and Zhigang Suo and Wei Yang
Book Title: Proceedings of the SPIE 8340, Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices conference
Pages: 83401X
Year: 2012
Month: April
Department(s): Robotic Materials
Bibtex Type: Conference Paper (inproceedings)
Paper Type: Conference
DOI: 10.1117/12.915424
State: Published

BibTex 

@inproceedings{Keplinger12-EAPAD-Design,
  title = {Modeling Guided Design of Dielectric Elastomer Generators and Actuators},
  author = {Li, Tiefeng and Qu, Shaoxing and Keplinger, Christoph and Kaltseis, Rainer and Baumgartner, Richard and Bauer, Siegfried and Suo, Zhigang and Yang, Wei},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the SPIE 8340, Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices conference},
  pages = {83401X},
  month = apr,
  year = {2012},
  doi = {10.1117/12.915424},
  month_numeric = {4}
}