Modeling and Actuation Performance Analysis of Conically-Shaped Dielectric Electroactive Polymer Actuator

Abstract

Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) represent one class of electroactive polymers that have already demonstrated excellent performances and show potential applications in many fields. In this paper, we present a simplified conically-shaped dielectric elastomer actuator model to explore the effects of various preloads and actuation voltages on both the actuation displacement and force output of DEA. The strain energy potential of Yeoh is used and the viscoelasticity is also taken into account. Using the developed model, the numerical results of DEA including the actuation displacement, the distribution of the principal stretch ratios and principal stresses in the membrane and the force output can be obtained. With different preloads and actuation voltages, the actuation characteristic of conically-shaped dielectric elastomer actuator is explored experimentally and validates the results determined from the proposed model. The proposed model can be used for the design and optimization of conically-shaped dielectric elastomer actuator.