Abstract:
Experimental investigations are carried out to quantify the effect of carbon nanotubes (CNTs)
addition on the actuation performance of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based soft dielectric
elastomer actuator (DEA). The actuation ability of pure PDMS and CNT/PDMS composite
samples is compared in unimorph configuration. Comparative analysis of experimental results
shows that incorporation of optimum CNT concentration (0.05 wt%) significantly enhances the
tip displacement (two times) and efficiency (three times) of pure PDMS based DEA. Increasing
the CNT concentration beyond optimum level degrades the tip displacement and efficiency of
bend actuator. The experimental results are well supported by the theoretical analysis and finite
element simulations. Moreover, experimental and numerical findings are combined to establish
microstructure-property relationship of DEA. It is shown that at optimum CNT concentration,
the induced Maxwell stress compensates for the increase in stiffness of DEA. However, the
enhanced stiffness and agglomeration beyond optimum CNT loading results in lower tip
displacement.
Keywords: soft actuator,
