Experimental study on the dynamic response of in-plane deformation of dielectric elastomer under alternating electric load

Recently, dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) have garnered remarkable attention mainly due to their ability of large deformation. Previously, the dynamic responses of out-of-plane deformations of inflated and clamped dielectric elastomer (DE) membranes were experimentally investigated, and a quasi-static model of large deformation concerned with the configuration was derived. However, the research work on the time-varying response of in-plane deformation of DE is insufficient. In this paper, we studied the dynamic response of the in-plane deformation of a dielectric elastomer membrane under a pure-shear state. We experimentally analysed how this response was affected by the peak voltage, frequency, pre-stretching, and signal waveform. The deformation equilibrium position of the membrane drifted severely during vibration, which may be attributable to the high viscoelasticity of the membrane and may lead to issues when designing precise instruments. We also studied how the peak voltage, frequency, pre-stretching, and waveform affected this viscoelastic drifting.