Harnessing snap-through instability in soft dielectrics to achieve giant voltage-triggered deformation

Keplinger, Christoph; Li, Tiefeng; Baumgartner, Richard; Suo, Zhigang; Bauer, Siegfried

doi:10.1039/c1sm06736b

Cited by 387 publications

(318 citation statements)

References 27 publications

(34 reference statements)

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“…recently demonstrated that voltage-induced expansion could reach 488% of areal strain when a DE membrane is subjected to biaxial dead loads. Keplinger et al (2012) and Li T.F. et al (2013) were able to achieve a giant voltage-triggered expansion of area by 1692% in a DE membrane by harnessing the electromechanical instability with air pressure control.…”

Section: Influence Of Pre-stretch On De Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanics of dielectric elastomers: materials, structures, and devices

Qian

2016

JZUS-A

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Dielectric elastomers (DEs) respond to applied electric voltage with a surprisingly large deformation, showing a promising capability to generate actuation in mimicking natural muscles. A theoretical foundation of the mechanics of DEs is of crucial importance in designing DE-based structures and devices. In this review, we survey some recent theoretical and numerical efforts in exploring several aspects of electroactive materials, with emphases on the governing equations of electromechanical coupling, constitutive laws, viscoelastic behaviors, electromechanical instability as well as actuation applications. An overview of analytical models is provided based on the representative approach of non-equilibrium thermodynamics, with computational analyses being required in more generalized situations such as irregular shape, complex configuration, and time-dependent deformation. Theoretical efforts have been devoted to enhancing the working limits of DE actuators by avoiding electromechanical instability as well as electric breakdown, and pre-strains are shown to effectively avoid the two failure modes. These studies lay a solid foundation to facilitate the use of DE materials, structures, and devices in a wide range of applications such as biomedical devices, adaptive systems, robotics, energy harvesting, etc.

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Section: Influence Of Pre-stretch On De Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanics of dielectric elastomers: materials, structures, and devices

Qian

2016

JZUS-A

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“…When a voltage is applied to the electrodes, the membrane is squeezed in thickness and expands in plane due to the electrostatic pressure. Giant voltagetriggered deformations up to 360% linear strain with clamped elastomer, 5 488% area strain with membrane under dead loads, 6 and 1692% area strain on membranes mounted on an air chamber 7 have been reported using polyacrylate VHB films from 3 M. However, to achieve reproducible and fast actuation and to prevent creep phenomenon, one must switch from VHB to materials with negligible viscoelastic behavior such as some classes of polydimethylsiloxanes (PDMS) or polyurethanes. Pelrine et al have reported, in 2000, a 117% uniaxial linear strain with an actuator patterned as a long strip on a uniaxially prestretch silicone elastomer.…”

Section: Improved Electromechanical Behavior In Castable Dielectric Ementioning

confidence: 99%

Improved electromechanical behavior in castable dielectric elastomer actuators

Akbari¹,

Rosset²,

Shea³

2013

Applied Physics Letters

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Design and optimization of voice coil actuator for six degree of freedom active vibration isolation system using Halbach magnet array Rev. Sci. Instrum. 83, 105117 (2012) The tracking control system of the VLT Survey Telescope Rev. Sci. Instrum. 83, 094501 (2012) Multi-functional dielectric elastomer artificial muscles for soft and smart machines App. Phys. Rev. 2012Rev. , 7 (2012 Additional information on Appl. Phys. Lett.

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“…[10,11] This motion reflects a non-linear property of soft materials and structures, referred to as a "snapthrough instability". [15][16][17][18][19] Although nonlinear properties of materials are often considered a disadvantage, this type of non-linearity, illustrated by snap-through, and other complex mechanical characteristics of soft systems, are proving to be useful, and to offer new capabilities to effectors, machines, and robots, because they enable a range of motions of sufficient complexity that-although they might be possible to replicate in a hard robotic system [20] -it would be complicated and expensive to do so. This paper demonstrates the utility of another type of non-linear behavior-the reversible, cooperative torsion and collapse of a set of elastomeric beams (fabricated as one connected piece) under pressure.…”

Section: Motionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Buckling of Elastomeric Beams Enables Actuation of Soft Machines

et al. 2015

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Motion 3Historically, many machines (especially robots) were designed to mimic the motions of humans and other animals, but to add power, speed, "endurance," and reproducibility to those motions. [1] The robots on industrial assembly lines, for example, extend the capabilities of the workers that originally carried out assembly by hand using simple tools, by adding power, complex tools, indifference to environmental conditions, and mechanical "endurance". Similarly, four-wheeled robots are loosely derived from fourlimbed animals, and aerial drones can be traced in design backwards in time through manned aircraft, to birds. Conventional machines-especially those fabricated from metal, ceramics, and structural polymers (so-called "hard" machines)-can carry out almost arbitrarily complex motions using pulleys, cables, gears, and electric or hydraulic actuators. To achieve controlled motion, however, they also normally require complex systems for active controls (networks of sensors, actuators, and feedback controllers). [2,3] Some of these "hard" systems are exquisitely and highly developed, but can be heavy, energy inefficient, dangerous to humans, and expensive.We are exploring soft actuators and robots-machines modeled after simpler animals (e.g., starfish, worms, and squid) having no hard internal or external structures, and fabricated entirely or predominantly in soft, compliant polymers. [4,5] The first generation of these systems-originally sketched by Suzumori, [6][7][8] and then realized and elaborated by us, [5,[9][10][11][12][13] and by others [4] -use pneumatic actuators, comprising networks of micro-channels; in our systems, differential expansion of these pneumatic networks (PneuNets) by pressurization using air produces motions (especially bending, curling, and variants on them) that are already established as useful in grippers, and interesting for their potential in walkers, tentacles, and a number of other soft, actuated systems. [14] 4 Although the design of the first of these systems has been relatively simple, the motion they produce on actuation can be surprisingly sophisticated: for example, a representative structure-the "finger" or "tentacle" of a gripper-curls non-uniformly, starting from its tip and proceeding to its stem, although the pressure applied in the PneuNet is approximately uniform throughout the system of inflatable channels. [10,11] This motion reflects a non-linear property of soft materials and structures, referred to as a "snapthrough instability". [15][16][17][18][19] Although nonlinear properties of materials are often considered a disadvantage, this type of non-linearity, illustrated by snap-through, and other complex mechanical characteristics of soft systems, are proving to be useful, and to offer new capabilities to effectors, machines, and robots, because they enable a range of motions of sufficient complexity that-although they might be possible to replicate in a hard robotic system [20] -it would be complicated and expensive to do so. This paper demonstrates the ut...

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Harnessing snap-through instability in soft dielectrics to achieve giant voltage-triggered deformation

Cited by 387 publications

References 27 publications

Mechanics of dielectric elastomers: materials, structures, and devices

Mechanics of dielectric elastomers: materials, structures, and devices

Improved electromechanical behavior in castable dielectric elastomer actuators

Buckling of Elastomeric Beams Enables Actuation of Soft Machines

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