The Electrical Breakdown of Thin Dielectric Elastomers: Thermal Effects

Shamsul, Zakaria and Morshuis, Peter H. F. and Mohamed Yahia, Benslimane and Garneay, Krist V. and Skov, Anne Ladegaard (2014) The Electrical Breakdown of Thin Dielectric Elastomers: Thermal Effects. SPIE Proceeding, 9056. pp. 1-11. (Published)

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Abstract

Dielectric elastomers are being developed for use in actuators, sensors and generators to be used in various applications, such as artificial eye lids, pressure sensors and human motion energy generators. In order to obtain maximum efficiency, the devices are operated at high electrical fields. This increases the likelihood for electrical breakdown significantly. Hence, for many applications the performance of the dielectric elastomers is limited by this risk of failure, which is triggered by several factors. Amongst others thermal effects may strongly influence the electrical breakdown strength. In this study, we model the electrothermal breakdown in thin PDMS based dielectric elastomers in order to evaluate the thermal mechanisms behind the electrical failures. The objective is to predict the operation range of PDMS based dielectric elastomers with respect to the temperature at given electric field. We performed numerical analysis with a quasi-steady state approximation to predict thermal runaway of dielectric elastomer films. We also studied experimentally the effect of temperature on dielectric properties of different PDMS dielectric elastomers. Different films with different percentages of silica and permittivity enhancing filler were selected for the measurements. From the modeling based on the fitting of experimental data, it is found that the electrothermal breakdown of the materials is strongly influenced by the increase in both dielectric permittivity and conductivity.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: DEAP, PDMS, electrothermal breakdown, numerical method
Subjects: Q Science > QD Chemistry
Faculty/Division: Faculty of Industrial Sciences And Technology
Depositing User: Mr. Shamsul Zakaria
Date Deposited: 29 Dec 2016 04:06
Last Modified: 25 Jul 2018 08:28
URI: http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/14400
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