MODELING AND CHARACTERIZATION OF DIELECTRIC ELASTOMER BASED ROTARY ACTUATORS

Abstract

Dielectric elastomer actuators, a rapidly growing field, is a novel technology which was not known until the last decades. DE actuator is technically a deformable capacitor made by sandwiching a thin dielectric material between two compliant electrodes, when these electrodes are subjected to electrical stimulations the DE actuates. This property of the elastomer can be exploited to obtain different types of motions. In recent years considerable experimental studies have been carried out to analyse the electromechanical behaviour of DEs and to develop prototype devices. But in the direction of developing analytical methods significant contribution is needed. The incompetency of the analytical models to predict the electromechanically induced complex inhomogeneous deformation of DEs necessitates the use of a good computer tool which could escalate the design and optimization of DE actuators. In the present work different types of rotary actuators have been designed and fabricated using the acrylic material 3M VHB 4910. Application of the voltages on asymmetric segmented electrodes leads to the deformation of electrodes as well as un-activated area which further results in rotational motion of DE film. These rotations have been observed at different voltages. The same phenomenon has also been modelled in FE package COMSOL Multiphysics and simulated for different input parameters. Finally the experimental results have been compared with the results obtained from COMSOL.