Design Of Unilateral Push-pull Actuator Of Dielectric Elastomers

Dielectric elastomer (DE) is a type of piezoelectric material. Compared with traditional piezoelectric materials, it has lager strains and has the characteristics of light in weight, high drive efficiency and good vibration withstanding capability. Unilateral push-pull actuator of dielectric elastomers is such a device, which can transfer electric energy directly into linear motion, just like a linear motor. It has similar motion characteristics of natural muscles and can be used in MEMS and robot widely.Until now there are no articles about the design method and theory of unilateral push-pull actuator of dielectric elastomers. A roll-type unilateral push-pull actuator of dielectric elastomers was designed in this thesis. Not only designed the detail structure of unilateral push-pull actuator, but also based on the quantitative experiment of dielectric elastomer, and according to Ogden strain-stress model carried out the mechanical analyses and calculation for this actuator. All formulas for design such a roll-type unilateral push-pull actuator of dielectric elastomers were derived, which can be used to confirm the main performance parameters of the actuator. At last, a prototype of the actuator was made and tested. Results of prototype test showed that, the design method and theory mentioned in this thesis is feasible and valid, which put the way for the improve design and application of this type of actuator, and provided a reference for the study and design of more complicated multidimensional dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) in the future.