Controlling turbulence is a major aim for many engineering disciplines. Decades of research, have shown that the large frictional drag in turbulent flows is attributed to the existence of near-wall coherent structures. Turbulence control is therefore likely to be achieved by manipulating these coherent structures. The challenge this presents is to find actuators that are functional at the spatial scales of those coherent structures (10 μm to 0.1 mm) and their temporal scale (100 kHz). Recent advances in MEMS technology have made possible the construction of such actuators. Electroactive polymers (EAP) provide excellent performance, are lightweight, flexible, and inexpensive. Therefore EAPs, and in particular dielectric elastomers (DEAs), provide many potential applications as micro-actuators. The modelling and simulating of EAP actuators are a cost-effective way of providing a better understanding of the material itself in order to optimise designs. A technique to accurately model DEA materials, taking into account its non-linearities as well as its large deformations, is being developed in this study.

Date Published: 10 April 2008
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 6927, Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2008, 692712 (10 April 2008); doi: 10.1117/12.776086

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6927:
Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2008
Yoseph Bar-Cohen, Editor(s)