Electro-mechanical modeling of dielectric elastomer transducers with micro-structured electrodes

Recently micro-structured solid electrodes were applied to dielectric elastomers. Compared with common powder or liquid electrodes the electrical conductivity of the electrodes is enhanced while the compliance necessary for large active deformations is retained. Envisaged applications range from energy harvesting to structural damping and actuation. The compliant conducting electrodes can be attached to the passive dielectric materials in a standardized and well controlled process. This enhanced the general interest in the technology and more applications are expected. While some of these applications aim for maximum actuation performance others require a superior reliability at moderate performance. For both strategies design and optimization of the active parts are essential. This work provides results of an extensive experimental characterization of the passive and active response of a novel PolyPower membrane. We further developed a 3D nonlinear viscoelastic model suitable for finite element simulation and verified the main assumptions of the modeling approach with mechanical tests. The model is shown to provide good predictions of both passive behavior as well as active deformation of an actuator system.