Stephan Rudykh's blog

Ph.D./Master position in the field of mechanics of materials is available at the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. The position starts on Oct. 1, 2014 or soon thereafter. Excellent candidates with deep knowledge in nonlinear elasticity, experience in finite element simulations, and/or with strong experimental background are encouraged to apply. Our group employs a mix of theoty, numerical simulations and experiments combined with 3D printing.

Electroactive soft elastomers require huge electric field for a meaningful actuation. We demonstrate, by means of numerical simulation, that this can be dramatically reduced and large deformations can be achieved with suitably designed heterogeneous actuators. The mechanism by which the enhancement is attained is illustrated with the aid of both idealized and periodic models.

Stability of anisotropic magnetorheological elastomers in finite deformations: A micromechanical approach

Stephan Rudykh and Katia Bertoldi

Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids 61 (2013) 949–967

Abstract:

Snap-through actuation of thick-wall electroactive balloons

Stephan Rudykh (a), (c), Kaushik Bhattacharya  (c) and Gal deBotton (a), (b)

(a) Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ben-Gurion University, 84105 Beer-Sheva, Israel

http://www.springerlink.com/content/wx185g5301300521/fulltext.pdf