The behavior of dielectric elastomer actuators connected in series and parallel

Guorui Li; Yiming Liang; Xuxu Yang; Tingyu Cheng; Zhilong Huang; Tiefeng Li

doi:10.1117/12.2219023

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15 April 2016 The behavior of dielectric elastomer actuators connected in series and parallel

Guorui Li, Yiming Liang, Xuxu Yang, Tingyu Cheng, Zhilong Huang, Tiefeng Li

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Proceedings Volume 9798, Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2016; 97980R (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2219023
Event: SPIE Smart Structures and Materials + Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring, 2016, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States

Abstract

Dielectric elastomer membrane has the ability of shrinking the thickness and expanding surface area when a voltage is applied through its thickness. Dielectric elastomer has been widely studied and used as dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA), dielectric elastomer generator (DEG) and dielectric elastomer sensor (DES). We study the behavior of several DEAs connected in series and parallel, and find that the different connecting models can achieve different responses of the DEAs. DEAs connected in series can enhance the actuation, while DEA connected in parallel can enhance the actuation force. In our experiment, DEAs connected in series and parallel are loaded in actuation direction under a dead load providing pre-stretch. We discuss the results of the experiments and give the conclusions.

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Guorui Li, Yiming Liang, Xuxu Yang, Tingyu Cheng, Zhilong Huang, and Tiefeng Li "The behavior of dielectric elastomer actuators connected in series and parallel", Proc. SPIE 9798, Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2016, 97980R (15 April 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2219023

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