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Continuum Modeling and Finite Element Simulation of Incompressible Dielectric Viscoelastic Actuators at Finite Strains
Kunzemann, Mario Pechstein, Astrid S. Humer, Alexander Krommer, Michael
Kunzemann, Mario
Pechstein, Astrid S.
Humer, Alexander
Krommer, Michael
Date
2024-11
Advisor
Type
Article
Degree
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Chapter 10.pdf
Adobe PDF, 1 MB
Description
Abstract
Dielectric elastomers, known for their ability to undergo large deformations exceeding 100%, are widely used as actuators in adaptive structures and soft robotics. Within the current contribution, we present a continuum material model that captures the incompressibility and viscous behavior of these polymers under finite s train and e lectric a ctuation. To address l arge deformations, we use a multiplicative decomposition of the deformation gradient to separate elastic and viscous effects. The elastic response is represented by a Yeoh potential, which is well suited to describe the material behavior under large strains. The evolution of internal strains is modeled using a dissipation function. Electric field a nd d ielectric d isplacement a re modeled i n s patial c onfiguration, le ading to an electromechanically coupled problem. We propose a mixed finite e lement f ormulation w ithin a variational framework based on the above thermodynamic principles. We introduce a novel approach using volume-preserving tensor-valued elements for internal strains, where we make use of matrix exponential functions to achieve incompressiblity exactly. As an example, we consider an experimental setup of a three-dimensional circular actuator. We provide material parameters for VHB4910 for the proposed model, and compare our results to experimental data from a different work.