Out-of-plane motion of a planar dielectric elastomer actuator with distributed stiffeners

A new design for a multi-layer dielectric elastomer actuator, reinforced with periodic stiffeners is presented. The resulting actuator enables complex out-ofplane motion without the need of the elastomer membrane prestretch. An in situ optical imaging system is used to capture the complex deformation pattern and track the non-planar displacement and curvature under the applied voltage. The role of the stiffeners periodicity, , on the macroscopic actuator response is analyzed numerically utilizing ABAQUS finite element software. A user-material subroutine is developed to represent the elastomer deformation under the applied electric field. It is found that the actuator force-stroke characteristics can be greatly changed by varying , while maintaining the same overall actuator stiffness. The numerical results showed a band of localized deformation around the stiffeners. The refinement of the stiffener, , increases the total actuated volume within the span of the actuator, and thereby the macroscopic actuator stroke. The stored elastic strain energy within the actuator is also increased.  might be further refined down to the actuator sheet thickness, wherein the localized deformation bands overlaps This is the practical limit of the stiffeners spacing to achieve the largest macroscopic actuator strokeThe developed experimental and modeling framework would enable the exploitation and optimization of different actuator designs to achieve a preset load-stroke characteristic.