Abstract
In the nascent field of soft machines, soft materials are used to create devices that actuate robots, sense environment, monitor health, and harvest energy. The soft materials undergo large deformation in response to external stimuli, often leading to instability that is usually undesirable but sometimes useful. Here, we study a dielectric elastomer membrane sandwiched between two soft conductors, rolled into a hollow tube, pre-stretched in the hoop direction, and fixed at the ends of the tube to two rigid rings. This structure functions as an electromechanical transducer when the two rings are subject to a mechanical force and the two conductors are subject to an electrical voltage. We formulate a computational model by using a variational principle and calculate the large and inhomogeneous deformation by solving a nonlinear boundary-value problem. We demonstrate that large actuation strains are achievable when the height-to-radius ratio of the tube is small and the hoop pre-stretch is large. The model provides a tool to analyze various modes of instability and optimize the electromechanical performance.
Highlights
A membrane of a dielectric elastomer is sandwiched between two soft conductors of negligible stiffness, rolled into a hollow tube, pre-stretched in the hoop direction, and fixed at the ends of the tube to two rigid rings
Our calculations demonstrate that the height-to-radius ratio of the tube, the pre-stretch in the hoop direction and the force applied between the rings significantly affect the electromechanical behavior
We present a computational model for the tubular transducers
Summary
A membrane of dielectric elastomer deforms in response to an applied voltage.This phenomenon has been studied intensely in developing highly deformable electromechanical transducers.[1,2] Attributes of these transducers include large deformation, fast response, light weight, silent operation and low cost.[3,4,5,6] Applications are wide ranging, including actuators for soft robots and MEMS,[7,8,9,10] tunable lenses and haptic interfaces for mobile phones,[11,12,13] and generators for harvesting energy from human motion and ocean waves.[14,15]Here we investigate a tubular configuration (Fig. 1). I. Introduction A membrane of dielectric elastomer deforms in response to an applied voltage. We derive the governing equations and boundary conditions using a variational principle, and describe the voltage-induced deformation by using the model of ideal dielectric elastomers.
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