Progress in constitutive theory and stability research of electroactive dielectric elastomers

Abstract

Dielectric elastomer has special mechanical and electrical performance. It can change its shape or volume under external electric field and can recover the original shape or volume when the electric field is removed. That makes it one of the most promising electroactive polymers for fabricating actuators, sensors, shakers and energy harvesters and have huge application potential in areas such as artificial muscle, intelligent biomimetics, aerospace, mechanics and biology. This paper make a brief review of dielectric elastomer and its applications firs and then focuses on the progress in dielectric elastomer theories, including constitutive theory, electromechanical stability, snap-through stability, giant electrostriction mechanism, allowable area description and failure analysis of dielectric devices. At last, this paper make a outlook on the research of soft dielectric electroactive elastomer.