Computational modeling of electromechanical instabilities in dielectric elastomers
(Conference Presentation)

Harold Park

doi:10.1117/12.2207460

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22 June 2016 Computational modeling of electromechanical instabilities in dielectric elastomers (Conference Presentation)

Harold Park

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9798, Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2016; 97980F (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2207460
Event: SPIE Smart Structures and Materials + Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring, 2016, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States

Abstract

Dielectric elastomers are a class of soft, active materials that have recently gained significant interest due to the fact that they can be electrostatically actuated into undergoing extremely large deformations. An ongoing challenge has been the development of robust and accurate computational models for elastomers, particularly those that can capture electromechanical instabilities that limit the performance of elastomers such as creasing, wrinkling, and snap-through. I discuss in this work a recently developed finite element model for elastomers that is dynamic, nonlinear, and fully electromechanically coupled. The model also significantly alleviates volumetric locking due that arises due to the incompressible nature of the elastomers, and incorporates viscoelasticity within a finite deformation framework. Numerical examples are shown that demonstrate the performance of the proposed method in capturing electromechanical instabilities (snap-through, creasing, cratering, wrinkling) that have been observed experimentally.

Conference Presentation

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Harold Park "Computational modeling of electromechanical instabilities in dielectric elastomers (Conference Presentation)", Proc. SPIE 9798, Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2016, 97980F (22 June 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2207460

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