Two postdoctoral positions are
available in the area of applied mechanics/mechanical design at the National
University of Singapore, Singapore. Experiment
experience is a plus. One may focus on energy harvesting using soft active
materials, while the other may focus on soft robots.
A combination of experiment and theory shows that dielectric elastomers exhibit complex interplay of nonlinear processes. Membranes of a dielectric elastomer are prepared in various states of prestretches by using rigid clamps and mechanical forces.
This paper studies the dynamic behavior of a dielectric elastomer balloon subject to a combination of pressure and voltage. When the pressure and voltage are static, the balloon may reach a state of equilibrium. We determine the stability of the state of equilibrium, and calculate the natural frequency of the small-amplitude oscillation around the state of equilibrium. When the voltage is sinusoidal, the balloon resonates at multiple frequencies of excitation, giving rise to superharmonic, harmonic, and subharmonic responses. When the frequency of excitation varies c