Abstract：As a class of materias in the family of smart materias, electroactive polymers (EAPs) have attracted much attention recently due to their many unique attributes such as large strain, fast response, high energy-converting efficiency etc. in response to an applied voltage. These attributes make the EAPs promising for broad applications as actuators, sensors as well as energy harvesters in engineering. However, because of the nonlinearity of equations of states, and diverse modes of failure caused by the combination of force and voltage, modeling and designing electroactive polymer transducers have been challenging. In this paper, we focuse on investigating the opimization design of a specific actuator presented by the Artificial Muscle Inc.. The essential part of the actuaror was made of a layer of membrane of dieledtric elastomers, a specific class of EAPs. Under the action of applied force and voltage, the actuator deforms into an out-of plane axisymmetric shape. The mechanical model characterizing the out-of plane axisymmetric large deformation of the actuator is established and the corresponding state equations are formulated. The effects of initial prestretches on the thickness of the membrane, stretches, stresses and electric field are obtained and illustrates graphically. The results show that the electric field in the membrane tends to be uniform under certain set of initial prestretches. The method proposed here provides basic analysis pattern for optimization design for such actuators.
2013, Vol. 34 
