Electromechanical instability in semicrystalline polymers

Electromechanical instability in semicrystalline polymers

Xuanhe Zhao , Zhigang Suo

Abstract

When a layer of a semicrystalline polymer is subject to a tensile force in its plane and a voltage through its thickness, the deformation of the layer is initially homogeneous,but then localizes. The electromechanical instability sets in when the force and the voltage reach critical conditions. The critical conditions are determined in this paper, and are related to two special cases: the Considère condition for the necking instability, and the Stark-Garton condition for the pull-in instability. The general critical conditions show that a tensile force can markedly reduce the critical voltage.