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A theory of large deformation in soft active materials

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Soft active materials have many important applications. We develop a theory of large deformation in a family of soft active materials known as dielectric elastomers. We show that the Maxwell stress is not applicable to deformable dielectrics in general, and that the effect of electric field on deformation is material specific. Based on available experimental data, we construct for a class of model materials, which we call ideal dielectric elastomers, a free-energy function comprising contributions from stretching and polarizing. We show that the free-energy function is typically non-convex, causing the pull-in instability of dielectric elastomers.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationElectroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2008
DOIs
StatePublished - 2008
EventElectroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2008 - San Diego, CA, United States
Duration: 10 Mar 200813 Mar 2008

Publication series

NameProceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
Volume6927
ISSN (Print)0277-786X

Conference

ConferenceElectroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2008
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySan Diego, CA
Period10/03/0813/03/08

Keywords

  • Dielectric elastomer
  • Ideal dielectric elastomer
  • Maxwell stress
  • Pull-in instability

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