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。     

THEORY OF DIELECTRIC ELASTOMERS

In response to a stimulus, a soft material deforms, and the deformation provides a function. We call such a material a soft active material （SAM）. This review focuses on one class of soft active materials： dielectric elastomers. When a membrane of a dielectric elastomer is subject to a voltage through its thickness, the membrane reduces thickness and expands area, possibly straining over 100%. The dielectric elastomers are being developed as transducers for broad applications, including soft robots, adaptive optics, Braille displays, and electric generators. This paper reviews the theory of dielectric elastomers, developed within continuum mechanics and thermodynamics, and motivated by molecular pictures and empirical observations. The theory couples large deformation and electric potential, and describes nonlinear and nonequilibrium behavior, such as electromechanical instability and viscoelasticity. The theory enables the finite element method to simulate transducers of realistic configurations, predicts the efficiency of electromechanical energy conversion, and suggests alternative routes to achieve giant voltage-induced deformation. It is hoped that the theory will aid in the creation of materials and devices.     

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。     

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.     

Modeling of dielectric viscoelastomers with application to electromechanical instabilities

Soft dielectrics are electrically-insulating elastomeric materials, which are capable of large deformation and electrical polarization, and are used as smart transducers for converting between mechanical and electrical energy. While much theoretical and computational modeling effort has gone into describing the ideal, time-independent behavior of these materials, viscoelasticity is a crucial component of the observed mechanical response and hence has a significant effect on electromechanical actuation. In this paper, we report on a constitutive theory and numerical modeling capability for dielectric viscoelastomers, able to describe electromechanical coupling, large-deformations, large-stretch chain-locking, and a time-dependent mechanical response. Our approach is calibrated to the widely-used soft dielectric VHB 4910, and the finite-element implementation of the model is used to study the role of viscoelasticity in instabilities in soft dielectrics, namely (1) the pull-in instability, (2) electrocreasing, (3) electrocavitation, and (4) wrinkling of a pretensioned three-dimensional diaphragm actuator. Our results show that viscoelastic effects delay the onset of instability under monotonic electrical loading and can even suppress instabilities under cyclic loading. Furthermore, quantitative agreement is obtained between experimentally measured and numerically simulated instability thresholds. Our finite-element implementation will be useful as a modeling platform for further study of electromechanical instabilities and for harnessing them in design and is provided as online supplemental material to aid other researchers in the field.     

具有线性介电常数的Ogden型介电弹性体的本构关系和机电稳定性

应用多材料常数的Ogden弹性应变能函数分析了介电弹性体的力学行为,研究了介电弹性体的机电稳定性.数值结果表明,通过对材料系数(如材料常数比和电致伸缩系数等)的恰当调节可以使得介电弹性体材料或介电弹性体结构更趋稳定.这些有益于深入理解介电弹性体的机电稳定性行为,进而设计恰当的介电弹性体器件.     

RATE DEPENDENT STRESS-STRETCH RELATION OF DIELECTRIC ELASTOMERS SUBJECTED TO PURE SHEAR LIKE LOADING AND ELECTRIC FIELD

The performance of dielectric elastomer(DE) transducers is significantly affected by viscoelastic relaxation-induced electromechanical dissipations.This paper presents an experimental study to obtain the rate dependent stress-stretch relation of DE membranes(VHB TM 9473) subjected to pure shear like loading and electric loading simultaneously.Stretching rate dependent behavior is observed.The results also show that the tensile force decreases as the voltage increases.The observations are compared with predictions by a viscoelastic model of DE.This experiment may be used for further studies of dynamic electromechanical coupling properties of DEs.     

Dielectric elastomer composites: A general closed-form solution in the small-deformation limit

A solution for the overall electromechanical response of two-phase dielectric elastomer composites with (random or periodic) particulate microstructures is derived in the classical limit of small deformations and moderate electric fields. In this limit, the overall electromechanical response is characterized by three effective tensors: a fourth-order tensor describing the elasticity of the material, a second-order tensor describing its permittivity, and a fourth-order tensor describing its electrostrictive response. Closed-form formulas are derived for these effective tensors directly in terms of the corresponding tensors describing the electromechanical response of the underlying matrix and the particles, and the one- and two-point correlation functions describing the microstructure. This is accomplished by specializing a new iterative homogenization theory in finite electroelastostatics (Lopez-Pamies, 2014) to the case of elastic dielectrics with even coupling between the mechanical and electric fields and, subsequently, carrying out the pertinent asymptotic analysis.Additionally, with the aim of gaining physical insight into the proposed solution and shedding light on recently reported experiments, specific results are examined and compared with an available analytical solution and with new full-field simulations for the special case of dielectric elastomers filled with isotropic distributions of spherical particles with various elastic dielectric properties, including stiff high-permittivity particles, liquid-like high-permittivity particles, and vacuous pores.     

A 3D multi-field element for simulating the electromechanical coupling behavior of dielectric elastomers

We propose a multi-field implicit finite element method for analyzing the electromechanical behavior of dielectric elastomers. This method is based on a four-field variational principle, which includes displacement and electric potential for the electromechanical coupling analysis, and additional independent fields to address the incompressible constraint of the hyperelastic material. Linearization of the variational form and finite element discretization are adopted for the numerical implementation. A general FEM program framework is developed using C ++ based on the open-source finite element library deal.II to implement this proposed algorithm. Numerical examples demonstrate the accuracy, convergence properties, mesh-independence properties, and scalability of this method. We also use the method for eigenvalue analysis of a dielectric elastomer actuator subject to electromechanical loadings. Our finite element implementation is available as an online supplementary material.     

Electro-viscoelastic behaviors of circular dielectric elastomer membrane actuator containing concentric rigid inclusion

The time-dependent electro-viscoelastic performance of a circular dielectric elastomer (DE) membrane actuator containing an inclusion is investigated in the context of the nonlinear theory for viscoelastic dielectrics. The membrane, a key part of the actuator, is centrally attached to a rigid inclusion of the radius a, and then connected to a fixed rigid ring of the radius b. When subject to a pressure and a voltage, the membrane inflates into an out-of-plane shape and undergoes an inhomogeneous large deformation. The governing equations for the large deformation are derived by means of non-equilibrium thermodynamics, and viscoelasticity of the membrane is characterized by a rheological spring-dashpot model. In the simulation, effects of the pressure, the voltage, and design parameters on the electromechanical viscoelastic behaviors of the membrane are investigated. Evolutions of the considered variables and profiles of the deformed membrane are obtained numerically and illustrated graphically. The results show that electromechanical loadings and design parameters significantly influence the electro-viscoelastic behaviors of the membrane. The design parameters can be tailored to improve the performance of the membrane. The approach may provide guidelines in designing and optimizing such DE devices.     

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.     

铁电陶瓷PZT53复杂力电耦合行为的实验研究

通过实验研究了平行和垂直于极化方向的正应力对铁电陶瓷锆钛酸铅(PZT53)的电滞回线(E3-P3)和电致应变曲线(E-ε)的影响. 实验发现平行于极化方向的压应力对PZT53陶瓷的电滞回线、电致应变曲线形状以及矫顽场大小都有明显的影响,但是垂直于极化方向的拉、压应力只对PZT53陶瓷的电致应变曲线形状有明显的影响,但对电滞回线形状和矫顽场大小都没有显著影响. 采用畴翻转的模型详细解释了观察到的实验现象,所得结果为建立铁电陶瓷的多轴力、电耦合本构模型,提供了物理基础.     

A FINITE ELEMENT METHOD FOR DIELECTRIC ELASTOMER TRANSDUCERS

We present a finite element method for dielectric elastomer(DE) transducers based on the nonlinear field theory of DE.The method is implemented in the commercial finite element software ABAQUS,which provides a large library functions to describe finite elasticity.This method can be used to solve electromechanical coupling problems of DE transducers with complex configurations and under inhomogeneous deformation.     

交变电场作用下骨表面温升的实验研究

骨具有力电性质,这一性质可促进骨组织生长。骨既是生理器官又是介电材料,在交变电场作用下,其表现行为可能有生理作用。为此,本文测量了骨悬臂梁试样在交变电场下的表面温升与顶端挠度。发现在电压70V,频率为10~70kHz的交流电场下,最大表面温升达到2~4℃,最大挠度变化为9.0~78.7μm;在频率10kHz,电压为70~175V的交流电场下,最大表面温升达到4~6℃,最大挠度变化为13.0~114.3μm。同时测量了两种经典介电材料有机玻璃和聚乙烯在交变电场下的温升与顶端挠度,最大温升低于0.5℃,但是挠度与骨试样相当,所以相对高温升是骨特有的性质。将交流电压有效值替换成相同幅值的直流电压时,最大温升也低于0.5℃,基本没有挠度变化,所以相对的高温升反映了骨的交流性质。分析后认为,骨在交变电场作用下的温升由胶原的介电损耗引起。实验数据显示,骨在交变电场下,表面温度变化与加载电压的平方成正比,且在实验加载的10~70kHz频段内,骨的介电常数随频率的变化明显。     

Dielectric elastomer composites

The coupled electromechanical response of electroactive dielectric composites is examined in the setting of small deformation and moderate electric field. In this setting, the mechanical stress depends quadratically on the electric field through a combination of material electrostriction and Maxwell stress. It is rigorously shown that the macroscopic mechanical stress of the composite also depends quadratically on the macroscopic electric field. It is further demonstrated that the effective electromechanical coupling can be computed from the examination of the uncoupled electrostatic and elastic problems. The resulting expressions suggest that the effective electromechanical coupling may be very large for microstructures that lead to significant fluctuations of the electric field. This idea is explored through examples involving sequential laminates. It is demonstrated that the electromechanical coupling – the macroscopic strain induced in the composite through the application of a unit electric field – can be amplified by many orders of magnitude by either a combination of constituent materials with high contrast or by making a highly complex and polydisperse microstructure. These findings suggest a path forward for overcoming the main limitation hindering the development of electroactive polymers.     

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...     

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.     

The shift of Curie temperature and evolution of ferroelectric domain in ferroelectric crystals

A micromechanics-based thermodynamic model for the phase transition of ferroelectric crystals is developed and, with it, the shift of Curie temperature and evolution of ferroelectric phase upon cooling are examined. This approach differs from the classical phenomenological one in that the evolution of new domain concentration can be predicted. We start out by formulating the Gibbs free energy of a generic, two-phase crystal consisting of the parent paraelectric phase and the transformed ferroelectric phase, at a given level of temperature, stress, and electric field. The thermodynamic driving force for domain growth is then derived and, together with the resistance force, a kinetic equation is established. The derived driving force is found to arise from three different sources of Gibbs free energy: (i) the interaction energy due to the heterogeneity of electromechanical moduli of the parent and product phases, (ii) the energy dissipation due to spontaneous polarization, and (iii) the self-energy of the dual-phase system due to the existence of polarization strain and electric polarization. For a BaTiO₃ crystal the electromechanical heterogeneity is found to play a rather significant role that seems not to have been recognized before. The derived shift recovers to the Clausius-Clapeyron relation if such heterogeneity disappears. We have examined in detail several factors that affect the shift of Curie temperature, and calculated the evolution of overall polarization and dielectric constant of a BaTiO₃ crystal. The results are found to be consistent with available test data.     

Electromechanical phase transition of a dielectric elastomer tube under internal pressure of constant mass

The electromechanical phase transition for a dielectric elastomer(DE) tube has been demonstrated in recent experiments, where it is found that the unbulged phase gradually changed into bulged phase.Previous theoretical works only studied the transition process under pressure control condition, which is not consistent with the real experimental condition. This paper focuses on more complex features of the electromechanical phase transition under internal pressure of constant mass. We derive the equilibrium equations and the condition for coexistent states for a DE tube under an internal pressure, a voltage through the thickness and an axial force. We find that under mass control condition the voltage needed to maintain the phase transition increases as the process proceeds. We analyze the entire process of electromechanical phase transition and find that the evolution of configurations is also different from that for pressure control condition.