Thermo-electro-mechanical dynamical response and the failure of an electro-active polymer cylindrical shell

Abstract

Electro-active polymers are often subjected to periodic loading when used as actuators or resonators, thus the dynamical response and the failure of the material subjected to electro-mechanical coupling loading with the effect of temperature are important. The nonlinear thermo-electro-mechanical dynamical response and the failure of an incompressible electro-active polymer cylindrical shell subjected to a suddenly applied constant load or a periodic internal load are analyzed within the framework of finite elasto-dynamics in this paper. The time history curves, phase portraits, Poincare maps of the shell in terms of different pressures, voltages, temperatures or wall thicknesses are presented through numerical computation. The attention is focused on the parameter effect on the motion of the shell and the corresponding critical values. Results indicate that the shell will undergo nonlinear periodic oscillation or quasi-periodic oscillation, and maybe a failure with time if one of the parameters for load, voltage, temperature or wall thickness exceeds its critical value. It is hoped that the results of this paper may provide a numerical reference for the related application and design of diverse electro-active polymers.