Dependence on boundary conditions for actuation characteristics of dielectric elastomer actuators

We present electro-mechanical characterizations of dielectric elastomer actuators (DEA) prepared from poly-styrene-ethylene-butadiene-styrene (SEBS) with comparison to the commonly used VHB 4905 tape. This study discusses effects of boundary conditions, stiffness and voltage ramp rate on the actuation properties of both materials. Measurements on samples in pure-shear configuration were made with variation in both load and applied voltage, to achieve so-called '3D-plots'. A strong dependence of the actuation characteristics on the voltage ramp rate was observed, leading to a large shift in the 'optimum load' for VHB, which was not found for SEBS. This is due to the large difference in visco-elastic behavior between materials.