Simulation of the transient electromechanical behaviour of dielectric elastomer transducers

Holger Mößinger; Florentine Förster-Zügel; Helmut F. Schlaak

doi:10.1117/12.2219133

15 April 2016 Simulation of the transient electromechanical behaviour of dielectric elastomer transducers

Holger Mößinger, Florentine Förster-Zügel, Helmut F. Schlaak

Proceedings Volume 9798, Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2016; 979831 (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2219133
Event: SPIE Smart Structures and Materials + Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring, 2016, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States

Abstract

To design systems utilizing dielectric elastomer transducers (DET) models are necessary to describe the behaviour of the DET and assess the system performance in advance. For basic set-ups simple analytical models or lumped parameter models are available and provide reasonable results. For more complex set-ups these models only allow a rough estimation of the system performance, not accurate enough to achieve an optimal system design. Therefore system designers typically resort to numerical simulation tools. Commercially available tools and models specialize on either electrical or mechanical domain thus simplifying or even neglecting effects in the other domain respectively. In this work we present a simulation tool taking into account the transient electrical and mechanical behaviour of DET under different mechanical load conditions and electrical driving frequencies. Our model can describe transient electrical and mechanical behaviour, such as electrical resistance, mechanical hyperelastic and viscosity of the electrodes and dielectric material. Model parameters are derived from measurements of the dielectric and the electrode resistance as well as e.g. the materials Young’s modulus. The results from the simulation are compared to simple lumped parameter based models.

Citation Download Citation

Holger Mößinger, Florentine Förster-Zügel, and Helmut F. Schlaak "Simulation of the transient electromechanical behaviour of dielectric elastomer transducers", Proc. SPIE 9798, Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2016, 979831 (15 April 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2219133

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