Abstract
The aim of this work is to develop a two-dimensional formulation for the large deformation analysis of dielectric polymer actuators under electrical loading. The kinematics of deformation is described as a Timoshenko beam enhanced by a thickness stretching term. Moreover, a second-order Taylor series expansion is used to approximate the electrical potential in the actuator. Accordingly, an eight-parameter electro-beam model for the theoretical formulation of the problem is introduced. The governing differential equations are expressed in a variational framework. A total Lagrangian nonlinear finite element formulation based on B-spline functions is developed to discretize and solve the highly nonlinear electromechanical problem. In the developed formulation, it is possible to approximate each field variable via B-spline functions of arbitrary order. Finally, large deformation of several actuators under various electrical loadings and boundary conditions is investigated in detail.
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