Topology Optimization Design Of Actuator And Mechanism Based On Dielectric Elastomer

Dielectric elastomers actuators and mechanisms are widely used in the fields of soft robots,sensors and energy harvesting devices with their unique advantages and it has become one of the international research hotspots.Most of the design methods of actuators and mechanisms for dielectric elastomers are at the level of conceptual design and empirical design.There are few designs for dielectric elastomers and actuators from the perspective of topology optimization.A new method used for the design of dielectric elastomer actuator and mechanism based on topology optimization is studied in this paper.First,the constitutive relation of dielectric elastomers is derived from the hyperelastic material model and thermodynamic framework,and the electromechanical stability of dielectric elastomers under uniaxial and biaxial pretension is analyzed.Aiming at the analysis of dielectric elastomer model and subsequent optimization problems,the ABAQUS secondary development technology is applied to integrate the constitutive relationship for the finite element analysis(FEA).The accuracy of theory model and FEA is verified by experiments.Secondly,the topology optimization design of dielectric elastomer actuator is studied from the aspect of the electrode distribution of dielectric elastomer.A method based on morphology representation is proposed in which the disconnect and hole problems is solved by the image processing algorithm.Then a method based on pairs of curves is presented.The envelope area between two bezier curves is used to represent the electrodes and this representation can effectively solves the connectivity problem and ensures the smooth boundary.The validity of the design method is verified by numerical examples and experiments.Finally,the topology optimization design of the dielectric elastomer actuator and mechanism is studied from the aspect of the dielectric elastomer frame.A topology optimization method based on fat bezier curve is proposed and the function to describe the width of fat bezier curve is bezier curve.A stragety has been proposed to deal with the problems of bounday crossing and height change.Then the mathematical model of the optimization problem is established and a variety of configuration are designed based on the proposed algorithm.The effectiveness of the design method is verified by design examples and experiments.