Voltage-induced beating vibration of a dielectric elastomer membrane

An AC voltage induces a nonlinear vibration of dielectric elastomers (DEs), which enables DE to be served as soft dynamical devices and robots. As is known, a special beating vibration may occur during the nonlinear oscillation of DEs, leading to the undesired electromechanical failures and instabilities. In this article, a numerical study is developed to explore the beating vibration of DEs with establishment of the dynamics model. The effects of geometric sizes, limiting stretch, as well as amplitude and frequency of applied voltage on the beating vibration performance of DEs are investigated, respectively. The corresponding range of actuation and materials parameters that determines the occurrence of beating vibration is obtained. The phase paths and Poincaré maps are employed to detect the stability and periodicity of nonlinear beating vibration of DEs. The bifurcation analyses of dynamic electromechanical performances of DE are also investigated.