"Electronic electro-active polymers under electric loading: Experiment, modeling and simulation"

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Paul Steinmann
• Subject Area: Mechanics
• Term: from 2008 to 2012
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 68543691

The mechanical response of electronic electro-active polymers (EEAP) under electric loading is influenced both by mechanical and electric properties of the material. Understanding the behavior of EEAP is vital in the development and design of EEAP based actuators and artifical muscles. Despite the fact that applications of EEAP are very promising, until now only a handful of experimental works have been realized to characterize their material properties. Moreover, so far only one-sided coupled models were used to explain experimental data and there exist discrepancies between meausrement, modeling and simulation. In this proposal, first experimental work will be performed to determine the material characteristics of a typical EEAP material then the electro-mechanical coupling phenomenon exhibited by EEAP will be modeled within the frameof hyperelasticity and viscoelasticity. Finally, by using a variational approach, a formulation representing the fully coupled problem will be derived, discretized, linearized and solved by the Finite Element Method in order to simulate the behavior of EEAP. Benchmark simulations will be performed to validate the applicability of the coupled model. Efforts will also be directed to the study of defects of EEAP by the Material Force Method and with the help of some recent developments in the spatial and material setting of nonlinear electro-elasticity. Especially the Material Force Method will be applied in numerical studies of cracked structures made of EEAP.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Privatdozent Dr. Duc-Khoi Vu