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。     

Large conversion of energy in dielectric elastomers by electromechanical phase transition

When air is pumped in, a tubular balloon initially inflates slightly and homogeneously. A short section of the balloon then forms a bulge, which coexists with the unbulged section of the balloon. As more air is pumped in, the bulged section elongates at the expense of the unbulged section, until the entire balloon is bulged. The phenomenon is analogous to the liquid-to-vapor phase transition. Here we study the bulging transition in a dielectric elastomer tube as air is pumped into the balloon and a voltage is applied through the thickness of the membrane. We formulate the condition for coexistent budged and unbulged sections, and identify allowable states set by electrical breakdown and mechanical rupture. We find that the bulging transition dramatically amplifies electromechanical energy conversion. Energy converted in an electromechanical cycle consisting of unbulged and bulged states is thousands of times that in an electrome-chanical cycle consisting of only unbulged states.     

An electromechanical atomic-scale finite element method for simulating evolutions of ferroelectric nanodomains

In this paper, a novel atomic-level computational method of perovskite ferroelectrics is established by combining the shell model and atomic-scale finite element method (AFEM). Its applicability is carefully testified for both bulk and nanoscale ferroelectrics, by comparing the calculated structural parameters and polarizations with the molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, first-principles calculations and experiment results. A comparison of the CPU time demonstrates that the developed method has a computational speed about 10 times over that of shell model MD method and its advantage becomes more evident as the computational scale becomes larger. Moreover, two effective calculation skills of long-range Coulomb force are introduced which can further enhance the computational efficiency by about 10 times. Using the developed atomic-level method, we investigate the various patterns of nanoscale domain structures in BaTiO₃ and their evolutions under electrical loadings. A domain structure with coexistence of vortex and streamline polarization patterns is revealed. Furthermore, the simulations of domain evolutions not only reproduce well the two-step 90° domain switching process observed in experiments on single domain under an anti-parallel electric field, but also provide a full evolution diagram among different domain patterns under various electric fields. A quantitative analysis indicates that the direction-dependent coercive field of multi-domain structure can be well described by that of single domain based on a simple analytical model. This study on domain patterns and evolutions may help us understand the behaviors of ferroelectrics from the atomic level.     

A dynamic finite element method for inhomogeneous deformation and electromechanical instability of dielectric elastomer transducers

We present a three-dimensional nonlinear finite element formulation for dielectric elastomers. The mechanical and electrical governing equations are solved monolithically using an implicit time integrator, where the governing finite element equations are given for both static and dynamic cases. By accounting for inertial terms in conjunction with the Arruda–Boyce rubber hyperelastic constitutive model, we demonstrate the ability to capture the various modes of inhomogeneous deformation, including pull-in instability and wrinkling, that may result in dielectric elastomers that are subject to various forms of electrostatic loading. The formulation presented here forms the basis for needed computational tools that can elucidate the electromechanical behavior and properties of dielectric elastomers that are used for engineering applications.     

A constitutive model of polyacrylate interpenetrating polymer networks for dielectric elastomers

A physically based method is proposed to represent interpenetrating polymer networks and their electromechanical behavior. The mechanical behavior of the material is nonlinear elastic and the electromechanical coupling arises from electrostatic effects often called the Maxwell stress effect. Ha et al. have synthesized interpenetrating polymer networks (IPNs) that invalidate the need for an external pre-stretch mechanism in dielectric elastomers. IPNs of acrylic elastomer and 1, 6-hexanediol diacrylate were successfully synthesized to create free-standing films with preserved prestretch. This results in a dual polymer network, with one polymer network in tension and the other in compression. The prestretch is preserved chemically in the dominant network. The internal prestretch is accompanied by an overall stiffening of the dual polymer network leading to compromised actuation strains. A mechanistically simple representation of the networks is proposed by means of a model of two springs in parallel, replaced by an equivalent single spring. A material parameter is introduced to account for the effect of the weight percent of the secondary network. The effect of the additive on the preserved prestretch in the primary network and hence the overall stress strain response is determined. Specifically, a modified Ogden strain energy function is proposed that describes the mechanical behavior of the new interpenetrating polymer network. The electromechanical response of the material is described using a previously presented constitutive formulation that works well for single network polymers. The model results indicate that ideally an interpenetrating polymer network DE should not stiffen when the secondary network is formed to avoid reduced actuation strains.     

A 3D pyramid spline element

In this paper,a 13-node pyramid spline element is derived by using the tetrahedron volume coordinates and the B-net method,which achieves the second order completeness in Cartesian coordinates.Some appropriate examples were employed to evaluate the performance of the proposed element.The numerical results show that the spline element has much better performance compared with the isoparametric serendipity element Q20 and its degenerate pyramid element P13 especially when mesh is distorted,and it is comparable to the Lagrange element Q27.It has been demonstrated that the spline finite element method is an efficient tool for developing high accuracy elements.     

A 2D boundary element method for simulating the deformation of axisymmetric compound non‐Newtonian drops

The boundary integral formulation of the solution to the Stokes equations is used to describe the deformation of small compound non‐Newtonian axisymmetric drops suspended in a Newtonian fluid that is subjected to an axisymmetric flow field. The non‐Newtonian stress is treated as a source term in the Stokes equations, which yields an extra integral over the domains containing non‐Newtonian material. By transforming the integral representation for the velocity to cylindrical co‐ordinates and performing the integration over the azimuthal direction analytically, the dimension of the problem can be reduced from three to two. A boundary element method for the remaining two‐dimensional problem aimed at the simulation of the deformation of such axisymmetric compound non‐Newtonian drops is developed. Apart from a numerical validation of the method, simulation results for a drop consisting of an Oldroyd‐B fluid and a viscoelastic material are presented. Moreover, the method is extended to compound drops that are composed of a viscous inner core encapsulated by a viscoelastic material. The simulation results for these drops are verified against theoretical results from literature. Moreover, it is shown that the method can be used to identify the dominant break‐up mechanism of compound drops in relation to the specific non‐Newtonian character of the membrane. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A discrete element model for simulating saturated granular soil

A numerical model is developed to simulate saturated granular soil, based on the discrete element method. Soil particles are represented by Lagrangian discrete elements, and pore fluid, by appropriate discrete elements which represent alternately Lagrangian mass of water and Eulerian volume of space. Macro-scale behavior of the model is verified by simulating undrained biaxial compression tests. Micro-scale behavior is compared to previous literature through pore pressure pattern visualization during shear tests. It is demonstrated that dynamic pore pressure patterns are generated by superposed stress waves. These pore-pressure patterns travel much faster than average drainage rate of the pore fluid and may initiate soil fabric change, ultimately leading to liquefaction in loose sands. Thus, this work demonstrates a tool to roughly link dynamic stress wave patterns to initiation of liquefaction phenomena.     

Analysis of the electromechanical behavior of ferroelectric ceramics based on a nonlinear finite element model

A nonlinear finite element (FE) model based on domain switching was proposed to study the electromechanical behavior of ferroelectric ceramics. The incremental FE formulation was improved to avoid any calculation instability. The problems of mesh sensitivity and convergence, and the efficiency of the proposed nonlinear FE technique have been assessed to illustrate the versatility and potential accuracy of the said technique. The nonlinear electromechanical behavior, such as the hysteresis loops and butterfly curves, of ferroelectric ceramics subjected to both a uniform electric field and a point electric potential has been studied numerically. The results obtained are in good agreement with those of the corresponding theoretical and experimental analyses. Furthermore, the electromechanical coupling fields near (a) the boundary of a circular hole, (b) the boundary of an elliptic hole and (c) the tip of a crack, have been analyzed using the proposed nonlinear finite element method (FEM). The proposed nonlinear electromechanically coupled FEM is useful for the analysis of domain switching, deformation and fracture of ferroelectric ceramics.The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10025209, 10132010 and 90208002), the Research Grants of the Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (HKU7086/02E) and the Key Grant Project of the Chinese Ministry of Education (0306)     

On the dynamic electromechanical loading of dielectric elastomer membranes

Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) have received considerable attention recently due to large voltage-induced strains, which can be over 100%. Previously, a large deformation quasi-static model that describes the out-of-plane deformations of clamped diaphragms was derived. The numerical model results compare well with quasi-static experimental results for the same configuration. With relevance to dynamic applications, the time-varying response of initially planar dielectric elastomer membranes configured for out-of-plane deformations has not been reported until now. In this paper, an experimental investigation and analysis of the dynamic response of a dielectric elastomer membrane is reported. The experiments were conducted with prestretched DEAs fabricated from 0.5 mm thick polyacrylate films and carbon grease electrodes. The experiments covered the electromechanical spectrum by investigating membrane response due to (i) a time-varying voltage input and (ii) a time-varying pressure input, resulting in a combined electromechanical loading state in both cases. For the time-varying voltage experiments, the membrane had a prestretch of three and was passively inflated to various predetermined states, and then actuated. The pole strains incurred during the inflation were as high as 25.6%, corresponding to slightly less than a hemispherical state. On actuation, the membrane would inflate further, causing a maximum additional strain of 9.5%. For the time-varying pressure experiments, the prestretched membrane was inflated and deflated mechanically while a constant voltage was applied. The membrane was cycled between various predetermined inflation states, the largest of which was nearly hemispherical, which with an applied constant voltage of 3 kV corresponded to a maximum polar strain of 28%. The results from these experiments reveal that the response of the membrane is a departure from the classical dynamic response of continuum membrane structures. The dynamic response of the membrane is that of a damped system with specific deformation shapes reminiscent of the classical membrane mode shapes but without same-phase oscillation, that is to say all parts of the system do not pass through the equilibrium configuration at the same time. Of particular interest is the ability to excite these deformations through a varying electrical load at constant mechanical pressure.     

A 3D direct coupling method for steady ship hydroelastic analysis

Asides from the influence of incoming waves, ships can experience steady motions, such as rigid-body sinkage and trim motions, and flexible-body vertical bending motions, due to a constant forward speed even under calm water conditions. In this paper, a novel approach to analyze steady-ship hydroelasticity, particularly for the steady-ship motions and surrounding steady-wave disturbances, is proposed using a three-dimensional (3D) direct coupling method, based on a higher-order boundary element method (HOBEM) and a higher-order shell finite element method (FEM). Within the linearized framework, a solution method is proposed based on a two-step procedure, using two types of Neumann–Kelvin (NK) linear flow models for the fluid part and a virtual work equilibrium equation for the structural part. The first step is to compute a mean position wave-resistance problem using the modified NK equation, the second step is to solve a perturbed position wave-resistance problem, by employing a classical NK model and a virtual work equation based on the first step’s solution. Detailed mathematical formulation and numerical procedures are described, and a few numerical results are illustrated. These include both rigid and flexible steady-ship motions, Von-Mises stress distributions, and wave-resistance coefficients for Froude numbers ranging from 0.15 to 0.5. Furthermore, the numerical results obtained using the present direct coupling method and a modal-based one are compared.     

空间各向异性弹性问题的八节点理性单元

常规单元的插值函数通常仅考虑单元的几何形状与节点位置,而忽略了反映物理问题关键特性的物性参数,从而降低了其数值分析的效果。相反,理性有限元法是取问题微分控制方程的多项式基本解作为单元内的插值函数,其所形成的刚度阵与问题的物性参数紧密相关,因此它避免了常规有限元法对物理问题和数学问题的割裂,可显著提高数值分析的稳定性和精度。本文利用空间各向异性问题的基本解,构造出满足分片实验要求的八节点理性块体单元。数值算例表明,本文给出的理性单元不仅具有较高的求解精度,而且具有良好的数值稳定性,尤其是对较为畸形的单元反应不敏感。     

温度对介电弹性体材料力电耦合变形的影响（固体力学大会文章）

介电弹性体（Dielectric elastomer,简称DE）材料是一类在电场激励下可以产生大幅度尺寸或形状变化的新型柔性功能材料。DE材料具有非常宽的温度应用范围,这种宽的温度工作范围和快速大变形性能为各种柔性致动器结构提供了良好的基础,但作为一种粘弹性高分子材料,温度对其性能的影响也是非常明显的。然而到目前为止,所有关于DE材料驱动性能的研究仅局限于室温条件下,温度变化对DE材料力电耦合稳定性的影响几乎没有相关报道。基于此,通过实验研究了温度对最常用的DE材料（VHB 4910,3M）力电耦合变形的影响,结果表明：升高温度可以提高DE材料的力电耦合变形;温度越高,DE材料越容易发生力电耦合失效。然后,从热力学和粘弹性力学出发,建立了考虑温度影响后的DE材料的粘弹性力电耦合模型,数值模拟理论结果和实验结果非常吻合。     

A novel specimen for investigating the mechanical behavior of elastomers under multiaxial loading conditions

In this paper we describe the design and manufacture of an axial-torsion test specimen, and provide relationships needed when conducting stress-strain characterization experiments with the specimen. The specimen is a short hollow cylinder of rubber bonded between two steel mounting rings, in which simultaneous axial and shear strains are produced via independently controlled axial and twist displacements. We present calculations for the strain-displacement and stress-load relationships, and strain energy density. These relationships have been established and validated via a combination of analytical and experimental techniques, and finite element analysis. We have investigated the extent and effects of strain and stress field non-uniformity in the test specimen. The specimen design is sufficiently simple that a closed-form expression for the strain-displacement relationship has been successfully developed.     

Preconditioned finite element algorithms for 3D Stokes flows

Preconditioned conjugate gradient algorithms for solving 3D Stokes problems by stable piecewise discontinuous pressure finite elements are presented. The emphasis is on the preconditioning schemes and their numerical implementation for use with Hermitian based discontinuous pressure elements. For the piecewise constant discontinuous pressure elements, a variant implementation of the preconditioner proposed by Cahouet and Chabard for the continuous pressure elements is employed. For the piecewise linear discontinuous pressure elements, a new preconditioner is presented. Numerical examples are presented for the cubic lid-driven cavity problem with two representative elements, i.e. the Q2-PO and the Q2-P1 brick elements. Numerical results show that the preconditioning schemes are very effective in reducing the number of pressure iterations at very reasonable costs. It is also shown that they are insensitive to the mesh Reynolds number except for nearly steady flows (Re_m → 0) and are almost independent of mesh sizes. It is demonstrated that the schemes perform reasonably well on non-uniform meshes.     

A ferroelectric and ferroelastic 3D hexahedral curvilinear finite element

An isoparametric 3D electromechanical hexahedral finite element integrating a 3D phenomenological ferroelectric and ferroelastic constitutive law for domain switching effects is proposed. The model presents two internal variables which are the ferroelectric polarization (related to the electric field) and the ferroelastic strain (related to the mechanical stress). An implicit integration technique of the constitutive equations based on the return-mapping algorithm is developed. The mechanical strain tensor and the electric field vector are expressed in a curvilinear coordinate system in order to handle the transverse isotropy behavior of ferroelectric ceramics. The hexahedral finite element is implemented into the commercial finite element code Abaqus® via the subroutine user element. Some linear (piezoelectric) and non linear (ferroelectric and ferroelastic) benchmarks are considered as validation tests.     

Thermomechanical modeling of the thermo-order-mechanical coupling behaviors in liquid crystal elastomers

Liquid crystal elastomer is a kind of anisotropic polymeric material, with complicated micro-structures and thermo-order-mechanical coupling behaviors. In this paper, we propose a method to systematically model these coupling behaviors. We derive the constitutive model in full tensor structure according to the Clausius-Duhem inequality. Two of the constitutive equations represent the mechanical equilibrium and the other two represent the phase equilibrium. Choosing the total free energy as the combination of the neo-classical free energy and the Landau-de Gennes nematic free energy, we obtain the Cauchy stress-deformation gradient relation and the order-mechanical coupling equations. We find the analytical homogeneous solutions of the deformation for the typical mechanical loadings, such as uniaxial stretch, and simple shear in any directions. We also compare the compression behavior of prolate liquid crystal elastomers with the stretch behavior of oblate liquid crystal elastomers. As a result, the stress, strain, temperature, order parameter, biaxiality and the direction of the director of liquid crystal elastomers couple with each other. When the prolate liquid crystal elastomer sample is stretched in the direction parallel to its director, the deviatoric stress makes the mesogens more order and increase the transition temperature. When the sample is sheared or stretched in the direction non-parallel to the director, the director of the liquid crystal elastomer will rotate, and the biaxiality will be induced. Because of the order-mechanical coupling, under infinitesimal deformation, liquid crystal elastomer has anisotropic Young’s modulus and zero shear modulus in the direction parallel or perpendicular to the director. While for the oblate liquid crystal elastomers, the stretch parallel to the director will cause the rotation of the director and induce the biaxiality.     

A boundary element formulation for wear modeling on 3D contact and rolling-contact problems

The present work shows a new numerical treatment for wear simulation on 3D contact and rolling-contact problems. This formulation is based on the boundary element method (BEM) for computing the elastic influence coefficients and on projection functions over the augmented Lagrangian for contact restrictions fulfillment. The constitutive equations of the potential contact zone are Signorini’s contact conditions, Coulomb’s law of friction and Holm–Archard’s law of wear. The proposed methodology is applied to predict wear on different contact and rolling-contact problems. Results are validated with numerical solutions and semi-analytical models presented in the literature. The BEM considers only the degrees of freedom involved on these kind of problems (those on the solids surfaces), reducing the number of unknowns and obtaining a very good approximation on contact tractions using a low number of elements. Together with the formulation, an acceleration strategy is presented allowing to reduce the times of resolution.