Experimental Study on the Variation of Dielectric Constant of Dielectric Elastomer Actuator

Abstract

The dielectric constant of dielectric elastomer(DE) is an important physical parameter that affects the performance of DE actuator. A number of factors may cause an effect on the value of the dielectric constant. In this paper, an extensive experimental study has been conducted to investigate the relation between dielectric constant and two factors, electrical frequency and biaxial prestretch ratio quantitatively. The experimental results show that the dielectric constant varies with the variation of the frequency of the sensing signal and prestretch ratio. The analyses and the recorded results provide a reference to researchers about the quantitative control of dielectric elastomer actuator relating to the two key parameters. An experimental platform has been developed for actuating and sensing of a prototype dielectric elastomer actuator that demonstrates the design for actuating and self-sensing control under varying dielectric constant. An area stretch ratio of more than 220% is obtained through the proposed design.