An Experimental Approach for the Design of Uni-axial Fiber Reinforced Dielectric Elastomer Actuators

Dielectric Elastomer Actuators (DEAs) are a type of soft actuators, generating mechanical displacement when an electric stimulation is applied. DEAs can be described as compliant capacitors, and when a voltage is applied, a compressive Maxwell stress will induce a thickness reduction and thus an expansion in the other directions. In order to achieve large uniaxial strains, DEAs can be constrained in the opposite directions, for examples by embedding fibers. This publication will present an experimental approach for the fiber reinforcement of uni-axial Dielectric Elastomer Actuators. Three main factors are studied, namely the thickness of the embedded fibers, their width as well as the spacing in between fibers. Experiments show that fiber width is the dominant factor when designing the reinforcement, with a reduced width leading to a larger displacement. The significance as well as the interactions between the main factors are studied, based on a design of experiments (DOE) approach, allowing to highlight the main factors to be considered and thus providing a tool for the design of fiber reinforced uni-axial actuators.