Nonlinear vibration behaviors of dielectric elastomer membranes under multi-frequency excitations

• Published in: Sensors and actuators. A. Physical. Vol. 351; p. 114171
• Main Authors: Alibakhshi, Amin, Jafari, Hamid, Rostam-Alilou, Ali A., Bodaghi, Mahdi, Sedaghati, Ramin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.03.2023
• Subjects: Dielectric elastomers; Multi-frequency tensile mechanical loading; Multi-frequency voltage; Nonlinear phenomena; Torus-doubling bifurcations; Dielectric elastomers; Torus-doubling bifurcations; Nonlinear phenomena; Multi-frequency voltage; Multi-frequency tensile mechanical loading
• ISSN: 0924-4247; 1873-3069
• DOI: 10.1016/j.sna.2023.114171

Dielectric elastomers (DEs) are electromechanical systems that play an essential role in designing soft robotic actuators. Due to their flexibility and lightweight, DEs mainly operate in nonlinear regimes and experience nonlinear vibrations in various applications. One of the newly developed stimuli in these actuators is the pumping deformation action due to vibratory response of DEs caused by the sound generation. In this study the nonlinear vibration behavior of a DE membrane under a multi-frequency voltage and a multi-frequency lateral tensile mechanical load is fundamentally investigated. The governing equations of motion are derived using Euler—Lagrange’s equation and solved using the Runge-Kutta method. Numerical calculations are presented in the form of time-history diagrams, phase-plane diagrams, Poincaré sections, and in the frequency domain using fast Fourier transforms. Results reveal that both electrical and mechanical multi-frequency excitations can cause chaos, quasiperiodicity, and torus-doubling phenomena in the system. The multi-frequency excitation can control the effects of the damping in the system. Results also show that multi-frequency excitations may improve the performance of dielectric elastomers, where a higher response amplitude is required. Moreover, the multi-frequency voltage may diminish the required high voltage in dielectric elastomers by adding an extra AC voltage. Torus-doubling bifurcation is also identified, which originated from the application of multi-mode frequency. Results also show that applying two low amplitude AC voltages can achieve a large amplitude vibration response compared to a single frequency high amplitude voltage. The results presented in this paper can thus provide an essential guidance in designing dielectric elastomer membranes under large vibratory deformation with low voltage requirements [Display omitted] •Vibration analysis of dielectric elastomer under multi-frequency voltage.•Dynamic response of different elastomers subjects to multi-frequency tensile loads.•Identification of Torus-doubling bifurcation in dielectric elastomers.•Chaos phenomenon id dielectric elastomers due to multi-mode frequencies.