Electromechanical coupling behavior of nano-scale dielectric elastomer actuators

纳米级介电弹性体执行器的机电耦合行为

• 批准号: 331255-2011
• 负责人: Jiang, Liying
• 金额: $ 1.46万
• 依托单位: University of Western Ontario
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=572165
• 关键词: Electromechanical; coupling; behavior; nano; scale

Dielectric elastomers actuators, emerged as one of the most promising technologies for soft material-based electromechanical transduction, have received much attention due to their light weight, high energy density and large deformation. They have extensive potential applications, such as artificial muscles, adaptive optical elements, soft robots, programmable haptic surfaces, and other biomimetic applications. Despite the fact that unique electromechanical coupling performance has been obtained for these devices, there is limited work on understanding the underlying fundamentals of these soft dielectrics, especially when the size of dielectric elastomers goes to submicro or nano level. To facilitate the full potential applications of these dielectric elastomers as actuators, it is desirable to develop a solid theoretical guidance for the reliable designs. It is, therefore, the objective of the proposed research to develop a robust theoretical framework describing the electromechanical coupling of dielectric elastomers, which is capable of capturing the large deformation, nonlinear material behavior and structure scale features. Meanwhile, an accurate, stable and efficient numerical method will also be developed for actuators with more complex and general configurations. These analytical and numerical methods will be used to characterize the electromechanical coupling of the nano-scale dielectric elastomer actuators. This project is the first to systematically study the electromechanical coupling behavior of dielectric elastomers considering nano-scale structure features. Through this study, we expect to quantitatively "design dielectricity" by exploring miniaturization of existing dielectric elastomer actuators or developing dielectric nanocomposites. The proposed theoretical and numerical approaches will provide a sound base for accurately predicting the electromechanical coupling of dielectric elastomers, thus lead to a better and controlled design for the applications of these smart materials in transduction technologies.

介电弹性体作动器由于具有重量轻、能量密度高、变形大等优点，成为软材料机电换能器中最具发展前景的技术之一。它们具有广泛的潜在应用，如人造肌肉、自适应光学元件、软机器人、可编程触觉表面和其他仿生应用。尽管这些器件具有独特的机电耦合性能，但在理解这些软介电材料的基本原理方面的工作有限，特别是当介电弹性体的尺寸达到亚微米或纳米水平时。为了充分发挥这些介电弹性体作为致动器的潜力，需要为其可靠的设计提供坚实的理论指导。