离子导体驱动的介电弹性体软机器研究进展

基于介电弹性体的软机器在柔性机器人、能量收集、柔性电子等领域有着广泛的应用。传统的介电弹性器件由不透明的流体碳膏电极或其他硬材料制作的电子导体来驱动。可拉伸透明离子导体作为电极驱动介电弹性体时,两种软材料互相结合,为软机器提供了一种独特的实现方式。本文综述了离子导体驱动的介电弹性体软机器的近期研究进展,展望了未来的研究方向和存在的问题。     

介电流变弹性体的电致变形与电流变效应研究

介电弹性体(Dielectric Elastomer,DE)具有显著的电致变形效应,刚度无法调控是制约其应用的关键瓶颈问题.本文将具有电致变模量特性的电流变弹性体(Electrorheological Elas-tomer,ERE)与商用介电弹性体VHB4910层叠复合,并涂覆柔性电板,制备介电流变弹性体(Dielec...     

介电弹性材料的机电耦合性能研究

作为一种新型的电活性聚合物,介电弹性材料可被用作柔性致动器。其中材料的介电性能和机械性能是影响其机电耦合致动性能的关键因素。通过实验方法研究了一种典型的介电弹性材料VHB4910在不同温度和频率下的介电常数和弹性模量,基于实验结果分析了该材料的机电耦合性能。结果表明:依赖于频率和温度的弹性模量是影响该介电弹性材料致动变形的主要因素,对致动性能的影响最大可达4个数量级,材料的介电常数对其致动性能的影响相对较小。     

丙烯酸弹性体的率相关分数阶黏弹性模型研究

丙烯酸弹性体VHB 4910作为一种重要的介电弹性体,在软体机器人、致动器、俘能器和智能隔振器等领域有很好的应用前景.但材料的非线性黏弹性对其力学行为有显著影响.近来分数阶模型在复杂材料的建模中取得了成功.本文基于分数阶有限变形Kelvin-Voigt流变学模型建立弹性体的三维张量本构,并进一步推导单向拉伸情况下的本构...     

一种新型介电弹性体仿生可调焦透镜的变焦分析

介电弹性体 (dielectric elastomer) 是电活性聚合物智能材料的一种,在外加电场作用下,可产生多种形式的响应.在驱动柔性透镜的变焦方面,相对于传统的机械操控变焦方法 显示出独特的优势.针对一款在电压激励下可高效调节焦距的介电弹性体仿人眼变焦透镜,该透镜由上下两层介电弹性薄膜和固定框架构成,并在封闭腔内充入盐水,上层薄膜涂覆环形柔性电极.在电压激励下,上层膜发生变形,由于盐水的体积保持恒定,引 起下层膜随之变形,使得透镜的焦距发生改变.采用 neo-Hookean 模型,利用变分原理导出了该透镜的控制方程、边界条件和连 续条件.利用打靶法求解了该非线性问题并高效地处理了非线性问题的界面连续条件. 理论分析结果与实验结果相吻合. 利用此模型开展了广泛的参数分析,研究表明,透镜的几何形状、初始焦距、介电弹性体薄膜的预拉伸率、涂覆的电极面积、材料的剪切模量等对透镜焦距的调节性能都有重要的影响.所建立的理论分析模型可为柔性仿生透镜的设计和参数优化提供有效的分析方法.      

介电弹性球膜的动力稳定性分析

摘要：介电弹性体结构具有卓越的力电性能,然而由于其大变形特性,在动态工作模式下极易出现各类失效问题,这极大阻碍了其工程应用.论文研究与力电失稳行为直接相关的理想介电弹性球膜动力稳定性问题.首先据虚功原理建立电压及压力共同作用下关于伸长比的动力学方程,系统自由能由弹性应变能与静电能组成,而前者基于Mooney-Rivlin模型表出.通过系统首次积分解析给出稳态响应幅值与阶跃电压/阶跃压力的关系曲线,其与静态平衡曲线的交点决定了临界电压/临界压力.研究表明：给定任意电压,材料参数存在某阈值,当超过该值后系统始终保持稳定;对于任意非零压力值,存在类似材料参数阈值;而当压力恰为零时,则始终存在临界电压值,超过该值则系统动力不稳定.     

THEORETICAL NONLINEAR ANALYSIS OF A BIOMIMETIC TUNABLE LENS DRIVEN BY DIELECTRIC ELASTOMER 1)

介电弹性体 (dielectric elastomer) 是电活性聚合物智能材料的一种,在外加电场作用下,可产生多种形式的响应.在驱动柔性透镜的变焦方面,相对于传统的机械操控变焦方法 显示出独特的优势.针对一款在电压激励下可高效调节焦距的介电弹性体仿人眼变焦透镜,该透镜由上下两层介电弹性薄膜和固定框架构成,并在封闭腔内充入盐水,上层薄膜涂覆环形柔性电极.在电压激励下,上层膜发生变形,由于盐水的体积保持恒定,引 起下层膜随之变形,使得透镜的焦距发生改变.采用 neo-Hookean 模型,利用变分原理导出了该透镜的控制方程、边界条件和连 续条件.利用打靶法求解了该非线性问题并高效地处理了非线性问题的界面连续条件. 理论分析结果与实验结果相吻合. 利用此模型开展了广泛的参数分析,研究表明,透镜的几何形状、初始焦距、介电弹性体薄膜的预拉伸率、涂覆的电极面积、材料的剪切模量等对透镜焦距的调节性能都有重要的影响.所建立的理论分析模型可为柔性仿生透镜的设计和参数优化提供有效的分析方法.     

孔洞放电热应力

本文研究介电材料内含空气圆孔在外加均匀电场作用下放电而引起的热应力.首先推导了圆孔放电前的临界电能,然后将复杂的放电效应简化为只存在热效应,并假设临界电能全部转化为热能且沿圆周均匀分布,计算了圆周附近的热应力.最后以聚乙烯材料作为算例,讨论了圆孔尺寸、材料常数等对热应力集中的影响,以及孔洞放电产生的径向应力和环向应力的变化规律.结果表明孔洞放电所引起的热应力集中以孔边的环向应力为主,而且材料放热系数越小,径向应力、环向应力集中程度越明显.     

电极面积对介电弹性体薄膜电致起皱影响的实验研究

介电弹性体(dielectric elastomers,DE)薄膜在其自身的应变能和外加电场能的相互作用下既能实现大的电致变形,也容易发生失稳起皱。对于单轴预拉伸的介电弹性体薄膜,电极的长度是决定其电致变形的重要参数,同时也可能是影响薄膜起皱的关键因素。为了确定以及量化该影响,本文实验测量了不同电极长度下薄膜的临界起皱电压。同时为了分析薄膜的褶皱特征,测量了不同电压下的褶皱波长。实验结果表明:电极宽度对介电弹性体薄膜的起皱有较大影响;随着电极长度逐渐增大,薄膜的临界起皱电压呈现出先快速减小,随后相对稳定,最后又逐渐升高的趋势。而其褶皱波长随电压升高逐渐减小。实验结果显示,褶皱分布在电极及电极附近,据此分析认为,薄膜的起皱是一种局部效应,电极区与非电极区的相互作用与能量传递对其有较大影响。实验中通过铜丝搭接的方式引出电极能有效解决电极引出线的附加刚度影响薄膜起皱的问题,可为相关实验提供技术参考。     

基于辛本征值方法的受约束介电弹性体中褶皱不稳定性的分析

辛弹性力学已广泛应用于弹性学中各种边值问题的精确解、计算表面波模式以及预测多层超弹性薄膜中的表面褶皱。本文展示了辛分析框架还可应用于受约束介电弹性体中的表面褶皱。机械和电位移向量是两个基本变量来描述介电弹性体中机械变形与电场紧密耦合。褶皱的临界电压可以通过引入基本变量的对偶变量来从辛本征值问题中解决。本文采用扩展的W-W（Wittrick-Williams）算法和精确的积分方法,准确而高效地解决制定的辛本征值问题的本征值。通过将褶皱电压和波数与有无表面能的褶皱基准结果进行比较,验证了辛分析的有效性。辛分析框架简洁且适用于其他不稳定问题,如分层电介质弹性体、磁弹性不稳定性以及层压复合结构的微观和宏观不稳定性。     

介电弹性作动器主动隔振模糊控制试验研究

采用模糊控制策略,开展介电弹性作动器的主动隔振性能试验研究。基于介电弹性材料的Maxwell应力模型建立了作动器的力电耦合模型,分析了作动器的非线性特性;针对隔振系统设计了Mamdani型模糊控制器,建立了控制电压信号与振动响应之间的关系;在此基础上,开展了介电弹性作动器主动隔振试验研究,并与加速度反馈控制进行了对比。试验结果表明,在相同驱动电压的情况下,基于模糊控制策略的主动隔振性能要优于加速度反馈控制,且能够显著降低由于非线性驱动力导致的倍频响应幅值,有助于提高隔振系统的稳定性。     

Influence of stretch and temperature on the energy density of dielectric elastomer generators

Application of dielectric elastomers(DE) has remarkably increased in mechatronics because they are suitable candidates for energy harvesting due to their low cost,light weight, and high energy density. The dielectric elastomer generators(DEGs) exhibit high performance regardless of the applications scale. However, functioning as a generator, a DE may lose its efficiency due to several failure modes including material rupture, loss of tension(LT), electrical breakdown(EB), and electromechanical instability(EMI). The failure modes confine the area of allowable states for generation process.Dielectric constant and dielectric strength of such elastomers depend on the amount of applied deformation and also working temperature, which are often ignored in theoretical simulations. In this paper, variations of the above-mentioned parameters are considered in mechanical and electrical modellings to investigate their effects on energy density and efficiency of generators. Obtained results show that, ignoring the variations of material dielectric constant and dielectric strength leads to overestimation of the specific energy.Furthermore, it is shown that, for an acrylic-based generator, the specific energy sharply decreases with temperature rise.     

Temperature effects on the dynamic response of viscoelastic dielectric elastomer

Viscoelasticity and temperature can significantly affect the performance of a dielectric elastomer. In the current study, we use a thermodynamic model to describe the effect of temperature and viscoelasticity on the electromechanical response undergoing a cyclic electric load by taking into account of the temperature dependent dielectric constant. Because of the significant viscoelasticity in the dielectric elastomer, the deformation and the nominal electric displacement can not keep in phase with the electric field at low frequencies. The results show that the magnitude of the cyclic electromechanical actuation strain increases with the decrease of the temperature and decreases with the increasing frequency, and viscoelasticity can result in significant hysteresis for dielectric elastomers under a relative low temperature and a low frequency.     

Modeling viscoelastic dielectrics

Dielectric elastomers, as an important category of electroactive polymers, are known to have viscoelastic properties that strongly affect their dynamic performance and limit their applications. Very few models accounting for the effects of both electrostatics and viscoelasticity exist in the literature, and even fewer are capable of making reliable predictions under general loads and constraints. Based on the principles of non-equilibrium thermodynamics, this paper develops a field theory that fully couples the large inelastic deformations and electric fields in deformable dielectrics. Our theory recovers existing models of elastic dielectrics in the equilibrium limit. The mechanism of instantaneous instability, which corresponds to the pull-in instability often observed on dielectric elastomers, is studied in a general non-equilibrium state. The current theoretical framework is able to adopt most finite-deformation constitutive relations and evolution laws of viscoelastic solids. As an example, a specific material model is selected and applied to the uniform deformation of a dielectric elastomer. This model predicts the stability criteria of viscoelastic dielectrics and its dependence on loading rate, pre-stress, and relaxation. The dynamic response, as well as the hysteresis behavior of a viscoelastic dielectric elastomer under cyclic electric fields, is also studied.     

介电高弹聚合物理论

软材料受刺激会发生变形, 该变形会引起相应的功能, 这种材料称为活性软材料(soft active material, SAM). 本综述主要讨论介电高弹聚合物这一类活性软材料. 当介电高弹聚合物薄膜受到厚度方向的电压作用时, 薄膜厚度减小同时面积增大, 可导致超过100{\%}的应变. 介电高弹聚合物作为转换器被广泛应用, 包括柔性机器人、智能光学器件、盲文显示屏、发电机等. 本文综述了建立在连续介质力学和热力学框架内的、并且基于分子理论描述和经验观测的介电高弹聚合物理论. 该理论耦合了大变形和电势, 描述了非线性和非平衡行为, 如力电失稳和黏弹性. 采用该理论能够通过有限元方法模拟实际构型的转换器, 计算力电能量转换的效率, 给出电致大变形的可行途径. 该理论有助于材料和器件设计.     

电活性聚合物圆柱壳静态与动态电压下的响应及稳定性

摘要：在电活性聚合物圆柱壳内外表面施加电压,圆柱壳会变薄并且伸长,因此相同的电压会在圆柱壳内产生更大的电场。这个正反馈可能使圆柱壳厚度不断变薄,最终导致其失稳破坏。本文研究了电活性聚合物圆柱壳在静态和周期电压作用下的响应及稳定性问题。采用neo-Hookean材料模型得到描述圆柱壳表面运动的非线性常微分方程。给出了圆柱壳在不同厚度和边界条件下外加电压随圆柱壳变形的变化曲线,结果表明存在一个临界电压,当外加电压大于这一临界值时,圆柱壳将被破坏。同时,也讨论了厚度和边界条件对临界电压的影响。圆柱壳在正弦周期电压作用下,其运动随时间的变化是周期性的或拟周期性的非线性振动。给出了圆柱壳振动固有频率的计算结果,采用打靶法得到圆柱壳振动的周期解,并且用数值法研究了周期解的稳定性。采用数值仿真得到圆柱壳振动振幅随外加动态电压激励频率的变化曲线,结果表明圆柱壳会发生多频共振,共振时圆柱壳振幅发生跳跃,导致圆柱壳失稳破坏。最后给出共振点临近点的振动曲线和相图,并对其振动特性进行讨论。     

A mathematical model for cylindrical,fiber reinforced electro-pneumatic actuators

In recent years, dielectric elastomers have received increasing attention due to their unparalleled large strain actuation response (>100%). The force output, however, has remained a major limiting factor for many applications. To address this limitation, a model for a fiber reinforced dielectric elastomer actuator based on the deformation mechanism of McKibben actuators is presented. In this novel configuration, the outer cylindrical surface of a dielectric elastomer is enclosed by a network of helical fibers that are thin, flexible and inextensible. This configuration yields an axially contractile actuator, in contrast to unreinforced actuators which extend. The role of the fiber network is twofold: (i) to serve as reinforcement to improve the load-bearing capability of dielectric elastomers, and (ii) to render the actuator inextensible in the axial direction such that the only free deformation path is simultaneous radial expansion and axial contraction. In this paper, a mathematical model of the electromechanical response of fiber reinforced dielectric elastomers is derived. The model is developed within a continuum mechanics framework for large deformations. The cylindrical electro-pneumatic actuator is modeled by adapting Green and Adkins’ theory of reinforced cylinders to account for the applied electric field. Using this approach, numerical solutions are obtained assuming a Mooney–Rivlin material model. The results indicate that the relationship between the contractile force and axial shortening is bilinear within the voltage range considered. The characteristic response as a function of various system parameters such as the fiber angle, inflation pressure, and the applied voltage are reported. In this paper, the elastic portion of the modeling approach is validated using experimental data for McKibben actuators.     

Electro-mechanical coupling bifurcation and bulging propagation in a cylindrical dielectric elastomer tube

This paper explores the critical and post-bulging bifurcation of a cylindrical dielectric elastomer (DE) tube undergoing finite deformation under electro-mechanical coupling loading. Explicit expressions for the critical conditions of electro-mechanical bifurcation are derived by using a simplified mathematical method. The post-bifurcation path is comprehensively investigated by specifying the material model as ideal dielectric elastomer. In the post-bifurcation analysis, we analytically establish conditions for the phase coexistence of steady propagation and analyze the physical implications. We demonstrate a global instability under force or voltage control and a localized instability under volume or charge control. Cylindrical tube experiments have been carried out under electro-mechanical coupling loading to verify the theoretical predictions. Good agreements on the critical conditions as well as the post-bifurcation path are obtained. This work characterizes the bifurcation mechanism of rubber-like materials under complex coupling loading.