Effect of entanglements on the electromechanical stability of dielectric elastomers

Department of Mechanics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology - 1037# Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430074, PRC and Hubei Key Laboratory for Engineering Structural Analysis and Safety Assessment - 1037# Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430074, PRC

^(a) jluo@hust.edu.cn

Received: 3 July 2017
Accepted: 29 August 2017

Abstract

Electromechanical instability has limited the capacity of a dielectric elastomer (DE) either as an actuator or sensor. The effects of entanglements on the electromechanical stability of DEs were generally not considered previously. In this letter, based on the recently developed true method, we employ the physics-based nonaffine model to analyze the effects of chain entanglements on the pull-in instability of an ideal DE subject to biaxial prestresses. It is indicated that a more entangled DE exhibits higher critical nominal electric field and smaller critical actuation stretch. The results may be useful in the design of DE actuators.