Electric Generators Using Dielectric Elastomers Driven by Karman Vortex in Water Flow

Electrostatically Driven Creep in Viscoelastic Dielectric Elastomers

We utilize a nonlinear, dynamic finite element model coupled with a finite deformation viscoelastic constitutive law to study the inhomogeneous deformation and instabilities resulting from the application of a constant voltage to dielectric elastomers. The constant voltage loading is used to study electrostatically driven creep and the resulting electromechanical instabilities for two different...

Monodirectional Positioning Using Dielectric Elastomers

The rationales for the use of microsystems are numerous, including the reduction of consumables, a faster response time, the enhanced portability, the higher resolution, and the higher efficiency; moreover their application sectors are numerous. Nevertheless microproducts have still great difficulty in penetrating the market, mainly due to the limits of the fabrication processes. The hybrid app...

Water Absorption of Elastomers By

Drag Reduction by Surfactant Solutions in Gravity Driven Flow Systems

Efflux time measurements are carried out for gravity draining of a liquid from a large cylindrical tank (where the flow is essentially laminar) through single exit pipe in the absence and presence of Cetyl Pyridinium Chloride (CPC) surfactant solutions. The variables considered are initial height of liquid in the tank, dia. of tank, length of the exit pipe and concentration of surfactant. T...

Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics of Dielectric Elastomers

XUANHE ZHAO∗,†, SOO JIN ADRIAN KOH∗,‡ and ZHIGANG SUO∗,§ ∗School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Kavli Institute for Nanobio Science and Technology Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138 †Soft Active Materials Laboratory Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science Duke University, Durham, NC 27708 ‡Institute of High Performance Computing 1 Fusionopolis Way, #16-16 Connexis S...