Morphology of voltage-triggered ordered wrinkles of a dielectric elastomer sheet

Wrinkles have attracted a lot of attention in the fields of material science and engineering applications. And dielectric elastomer is a potential smart material which has advantages including large deformation, light weight, high energy density, quick response and et al. We try to use DE to make a wrinkle structure which is quick response and reversible easily.

In our recent paper,"Morphology of voltage-triggered ordered wrinkles of a dielectric elastomer sheet", we present a new method to generate ordered (strip-like) and steady wrinkles of a constrained dielectric elastomer (DE) sheet coated with soft electrodes on both sides subjected to high voltage. When the voltage reaches a certain value, wrinkles will nucleate and grow. We conduct both experimental and theoretical studies to investigate the wavelength and amplitude of the wrinkle. The results show good agreement between theory and experiment. Moreover, the amplitude and wavelength of the ordered wrinkle can be tuned by varying the prestretch and geometry of DE sheet, as well as the applied voltage. This study can help the future design of DE transducers such as diffraction grating and optical sensors.

P.S. In 2015 and 2016, we published two papers about the wrinkles of DE balloon subjected to a square wave voltage. We also show these two papers in this blog. Discussion about our paper is welcome, thanks for reading.

 ADDIN EN.REFLIST [1]  G. Mao, L. Wu, X. Liang, and S. Qu, "Morphology of Voltage-Triggered Ordered Wrinkles of a Dielectric Elastomer Sheet," Journal of Applied Mechanics, vol. 84, no. 11, pp. 111005-111005-6, 2017.

[2]  G. Mao, X. Huang, M. Diab, J. Liu, and S. Qu, "Controlling wrinkles on the surface of a dielectric elastomer balloon," Extreme Mechanics Letters, vol. 9, pp. 139-146, 2016.

[3]  G. Mao, X. Huang, M. Diab, T. Li, S. Qu, and W. Yang, "Nucleation and Propagation of Voltage-driven Wrinkles in an Inflated Dielectric Elastomer Balloon," Soft Matter, 10.1039/C5SM01102G vol. 11, pp. 6569-6575, 2015.