Journal
SMART MATERIALS AND STRUCTURES
Volume 26, Issue 8, Pages -Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/1361-665X/aa723f
Keywords
fiber-reinforced dielectric elastomer; artificial muscle; electropneumatic actuation mechanism; inhomogeneous actuation
Funding
- Major Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China [51290294]
- Foundation for Innovative Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China [11321062]
- Open Foundation of State key laboratory [sklms2016003]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [11402184]
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Dielectric elastomers (DEs) have great potential for use as artificial muscles because of the following characteristics: electrical activity, fast and large deformation under stimuli, and softness as natural muscles. Inspired by the traditional McKibben actuators, in this study, we developed a cylindrical soft fiber-reinforced and electropneumatic DE artificial muscle (DEAM) by mimicking the spindle shape of natural muscles. Based on continuum mechanics and variation principle, the inhomogeneous actuation of DEAMs was theoretically modeled and calculated. Prototypes of DEAMs were prepared to validate the design concept and theoretical model. The theoretical predictions are consistent with the experimental results; they successfully predicted the evolutions of the contours of DEAMs with voltage. A pneumatically supported high prestretch in the hoop direction was achieved by our DEAM prototype without buckling the soft fibers sandwiched by the DE films. Besides, a continuously tunable prestretch in the actuation direction was achieved by varying the supporting pressure. Using the theoretical model, the failure modes, maximum actuations, and critical voltages were analyzed; they were highly dependent on the structural parameters, i.e., the cylinder aspect ratio, prestretch level, and supporting pressure. The effects of structural parameters and supporting pressure on the actuation performance were also investigated to optimize the DEAMs.
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