Electromechanical instabilities in fiber-constrained, dielectric-elastomer composites subjected to all-around dead-loading

Abstract This paper puts forth an approximate yet accurate free energy for the elastic dielectric response—under finite deformations and finite electric fields—of non-percolative dielectric elastomer composites made out of a non-Gaussian dielectric elastomer matrix with deformation-dependent apparent permittivity isotropically filled with nonlinear elastic dielectric particles that may exhibit polarization saturation. While the proposed free energy applies in its most general form to arbitrary isotropic non-percolative microstructures, closed-form specializations are recorded for the practically relevant cases of rigid or liquid-like spherical particles. The proposed free energy is exact by construction in the asymptotic context of small deformations and moderate electric fields and is shown to remain accurate for arbitrary large deformations and electric fields via comparisons with full-field finite-element simulations. The proposed constitutive model is deployed to probe the electrostriction response of these dielectric elastomer composites and corresponding results reveal that their elastic dielectric response strongly depends on the deformation-dependent apparent permittivity of the matrix they comprise.

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Computational simulations of contractile dielectric elastomer composites (Conference Presentation)

Behavior and Mechanics of Multifunctional Materials and Composites 2017 ◽

10.1117/12.2269077 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Yali Li ◽

Nakhiah C. Goulbourne

Keyword(s):

Dielectric Elastomer ◽

Computational Simulations ◽

Elastomer Composites

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The Effects of Moisture in Metal Oxide on the Mechanical and Electric Properties of Dielectric Elastomer Composites

Materials Science Forum ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/msf.981.40 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 981 ◽

pp. 40-44

Author(s):

Syed Muhammad Aiman Syed Mohd Hakhiri ◽

Ahmad Farimin Ahmad Osman ◽

Siti Noor Hidayah Mustapha ◽

Lau Kwan Yiew ◽

Shamsul Zakaria

Keyword(s):

Zinc Oxide ◽

Titanium Dioxide ◽

Metal Oxides ◽

Breakdown Strength ◽

Electrical Breakdown ◽

Dielectric Elastomer ◽

Pdms Film ◽

Pdms Elastomer ◽

Elastomer Composites ◽

Major Factors

Dielectric elastomer (DE) technology are used in several applications for example generator, sensor and actuator. One of the major factors that limits the DE performance is premature electrical breakdown. Compositing is the example that have been reported to increase the breakdown strength. In this study polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) film will be incorporated with two different fillers which are titanium dioxide (TiO2) and zinc oxide (ZnO). Both metal oxides will be calcined up to 300°C before they are added to the PDMS elastomer as fillers. The results show that the calcined TiO2 and ZnO that incorporated in PDMS films show significant increase of breakdown strengths. Meanwhile, the calcined TiO2 PDMS film give higher breakdown strength as comparison to the calcined ZnO counterpart.

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