bauer group research

     Dielectric elastomers are capable of large voltage-induced deformation, but achieving
such large deformation in practice has been a major challenge due to electromechanical
instability and electric breakdown. The complex nonlinear behavior suggests an important
opportunity: electromechanical instability can be harnessed to achieve giant voltage-induced
deformation. 

Choon Chiang Foo, Soo Jin Adrian Koh, Christoph Keplinger, Rainer Kaltseis, Siegfried Bauer, Zhigang Suo.

Performance of dissipative dielectric elastomer generators.
Journal of Applied Physics 111, 094107 (2012)

The 26th issue of the WW-EAP Newsletter is now available at: 

http://ndeaa.jpl.nasa.gov/nasa-nde/newsltr/WW-EAP_Newsletter13-2.pdf

This newsletter on the field of electroactive polymers, edited by Dr. Yoseph Bar-Cohen, addresses the need for rapid communication of progress in the field and state-of-the-art capabilities.

For a dielectric elastomer membrane we show giant voltage-triggered expansion of area by 1692%, far beyond the largest values reported in the literature.