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  4. Taming the viscoelastic creep of dielectric elastomer actuators
 
conference paper

Taming the viscoelastic creep of dielectric elastomer actuators

Rosset, Samuel  
•
Poulin, Alexandre  
•
Shea, Herbert  
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January 1, 2019
Electroactive Polymer Actuators And Devices (Eapad) Xxi
21st Conference on Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) XXI

We present a simple open-loop method to suppress the viscoelastic drift of dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs). Viscoelastic creep is one of the drawbacks of DEAs, especially when made with acrylic elastomer membranes (VHB). This leads to a time-dependent strain response to a voltage input, thus making the precise control of DEAs difficult. Closed-loop methods can be used to mitigate this issue, but they require additional sensors for the strain feedback, or a complex power supply if capacitive self-sensing is used. Our method is based on quasi-linear viscoelasticity and relies on two simple characterisation tests: 1) a slow voltage ramp to characterise the steady-state strain versus voltage behaviour, and 2) a strain versus time response to a voltage step input. The model then enables to calculate the voltage profile required to obtain a target strain output. A simple analytical expression can be used to generate strain step responses. The method enables to suppress the viscoelastic drift and to increase the response speed of DEAs. To obtain arbitrary strain profiles (sinusoid, square, etc.), the required voltage can be numerically calculated, thus making the method a simple and versatile tool to compensate the viscoelasticity, and generate precise strain profiles from DEAS, without the need for closed-loop operation.

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Type
conference paper
DOI
10.1117/12.2513981
Web of Science ID

WOS:000484817900017

Author(s)
Rosset, Samuel  
Poulin, Alexandre  
Shea, Herbert  
Anderson, Iain
Date Issued

2019-01-01

Publisher

SPIE-INT SOC OPTICAL ENGINEERING

Publisher place

Bellingham

Published in
Electroactive Polymer Actuators And Devices (Eapad) Xxi
ISBN of the book

978-1-5106-2588-4

Series title/Series vol.

Proceedings of SPIE

Volume

10966

Start page

1096614

Subjects

Optics

•

Polymer Science

•

Optics

•

Polymer Science

•

dielectric elastomer actuators

•

reliability

•

electrode degradation

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
LMTS  
Event nameEvent placeEvent date
21st Conference on Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) XXI

Denver, CO

Mar 04-07, 2019

Available on Infoscience
September 25, 2019
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/161511
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