Modeling and simulation of viscous electro-active polymers

Vogel, F., Goktepe, S., Steinmann, P. and Kuhl, E. (2014) Modeling and simulation of viscous electro-active polymers. European Journal of Mechanics - A/Solids, 48, pp. 112-128. (doi: 10.1016/j.euromechsol.2014.02.001)

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Abstract

Electro-active materials are capable of undergoing large deformation when stimulated by an electric field. They can be divided into electronic and ionic electro-active polymers (EAPs) depending on their actuation mechanism based on their composition. We consider electronic EAPs, for which attractive Coulomb forces or local re-orientation of polar groups cause a bulk deformation. Many of these materials exhibit pronounced visco-elastic behavior. Here we show the development and implementation of a constitutive model, which captures the influence of the electric field on the visco-elastic response within a geometrically non-linear finite element framework. The electric field affects not only the equilibrium part of the strain energy function, but also the viscous part. To adopt the familiar additive split of the strain from the small strain setting, we formulate the governing equations in the logarithmic strain space and additively decompose the logarithmic strain into elastic and viscous parts. We show that the incorporation of the electric field in the viscous response significantly alters the relaxation and hysteresis behavior of the model. Our parametric study demonstrates that the model is sensitive to the choice of the electro-viscous coupling parameters. We simulate several actuator structures to illustrate the performance of the method in typical relaxation and creep scenarios. Our model could serve as a design tool for micro-electro-mechanical systems, microfluidic devices, and stimuli-responsive gels such as artificial skin, tactile displays, or artificial muscle.

Item Type:Articles
Additional Information:The first author is grateful to the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) for the funding this work with Grant STE 544/32-2. The financial support of the European Research Council (ERC) with the ERC Advanced Grant 289049 is gratefully acknowledged by the third author. The fourth author would like to express her gratitude to the National Science Foundation through the CAREER award CMMI 0952021 and to the National Institutes of Health through the grant U54 GM072970.
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Steinmann, Professor Paul
Authors: Vogel, F., Goktepe, S., Steinmann, P., and Kuhl, E.
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Infrastructure and Environment
Journal Name:European Journal of Mechanics - A/Solids
Publisher:Elsevier
ISSN:0997-7538
ISSN (Online):1873-7285
Published Online:12 March 2014
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