Performance prediction of circular dielectric electro-active polymers membrane actuators with various geometries

Circular dielectric electro-active polymer (DEAP) membrane actuators are easy to manufacture(1) and therefore can be uniquely designed to perform optimally for specific applications. The performance of these actuators is naturally dependent on the materials used, and also dictated by the specific geometry of the circular design. For a given overall actuator size, changing their internal geometry will directly change the force and stroke output(2). In addition the DEAP technology itself is a promising technology for constructing lightweight, cost and energy efficient sensor and actuator systems(3). Thus, several potential applications like pressure sensors(4,5), pumps(6,7), valves, micro-positioners and loudspeakers(8) were already proposed. The circular DEAP membrane actuators used in this study consist of a silicone based elastomer, carbon ink based electrodes, and are held together with a stiff frame. Experimentally collected force-displacement curves for these actuators can be used to determine force and stroke output of the actuators as described by Hodgins et al. in(9,10). This work presents an efficient method to predict these force-displacement plots and thus stroke and force output for different actuator geometries. These results than can be used to adapt the actuator geometry to the needs of a specific application with its particular force and stroke requirements. The prediction method is based on an average stress-stretch calculation for training samples. The calculated stress-stretch data is then geometry independent and can be used to predict desired geometry dependent force-displacement data for stroke and force output analysis.