Inhibiting electro-thermal breakdown of acrylic dielectric elastomer actuators by dielectric gel coating
Electrical breakdown of dielectricelastomer actuators (DEA) is very localized; a spark and a pinhole (puncture) in dielectric ends up with short-circuit. This letter shows that prevention of electrothermal breakdown helps defer failure of DEAs even with conductive-grease electrodes.Dielectricgel enc...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2016
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/82446 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/40017 |
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| Institution: | Nanyang Technological University |
| Language: | English |
| Summary: | Electrical breakdown of dielectricelastomer actuators (DEA) is very localized; a spark and a pinhole (puncture) in dielectric ends up with short-circuit. This letter shows that prevention of electrothermal breakdown helps defer failure of DEAs even with conductive-grease electrodes.Dielectricgel encapsulation or coating (Dow Corning 3-4170) helps protect acrylic elastomer (VHB 4905), making it thermally more stable and delaying its thermal oxidation (burn) from 218 °C to 300 °C. Dielectric-gel-coated acrylic DEAs can withstand higher local leak-induced heating and thus achieve higher dielectric strengths than non-coated DEAs do. |
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