Prestrained elastomeric

In addition to the qualitative studies on the performance metrics of the elastomeric materials, actuation performances of the proposed material are evaluated with experiments in this subsection. Deformation, time responses, hysteresis and elastic energy efficiency are tested for each specimen. Most of the experiments are performed without prestrain since the prestrain on dielectric elastomer actuator has several negative effects on actuation performance [Choi et al. (2005b)]. Non-prestrained test is desirable for clarif3dng the actuation features of material itself. In the present study, only the experiment for elastic energy efficiency is conducted with prestrain condition, which is for the purpose of comparison with previous results [Pelrine et al. (2000)]. 

Kombluh RD, Pelrine R, Joseph J et al (1999) High-field eleetiostriction of elastomeric polymer dielectrics for actuation. Proc SPIE 3669 149-161 Krishnan AS, Vargantwar PH, Ghosh TK et al (2011) Electroactuation of solvated triblock copolymer dielectric elastomers decoupling the roles of mechanical prestrain and specimen thickness. J Polym Sci B Polym Phys 49 1569-1582 Krishnan AS, Smith SD, Spontak RJ (2012) Ternary phase behavior of a triblock copolymer in the presence of an endblock-selective homopolymer and a midblock-selective oil. Macromolecules 45 6056-6067... 

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