UC Irvine

Electromechanical devices like Dielectric Elastomers (DEs) have been recently developed with spectacular features. They have been widely used in biomedical devices such as artificial muscles and sensors. Other use of this material is for robotics, loud speakers, and dampers in bridges.

Although there are several advantages regarding the use of Dielectric Elastomers (DEs), there is still challenge on reducing the amount of voltage that it needs in order to get high strain.

This challenge is solved by adding Multi-Walled Nano-Tube inside the material which will increase the dielectric constant or relative permittivity. By increasing the relative permittivity, the strain that is got from the material will also be increased.

In 2015, Yu Wang started to do the experiments for DEs with MWNT inside to see how much higher strain we can get by adding those particles. In this report, those experimental data are validated by doing numerical simulation and also understanding of how other factors can be effective on increasing that strain ratio.