Electrical breakdown and mechanical ageing in dielectric elastomers

Dielectric elastomers (DE) are used in various applications, such as artificial eye lids, pressure sensors and human motion energy generators. For many applications, one of the major factors that limits the DE performance is premature electrical breakdown. There are many approaches that have been re...

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Main Author: Shamsul, Zakaria
Format: Thesis
Language:English
English
English
Published: 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/17654/
http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/17654/
http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/17654/1/Electrical%20breakdown%20and%20mechanical%20ageing%20in%20dielectric%20elastomers-Table%20of%20contents.PDF
http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/17654/6/Electrical%20breakdown%20and%20mechanical%20ageing%20in%20dielectric%20elastomers-Abstract.PDF
http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/17654/7/Electrical%20breakdown%20and%20mechanical%20ageing%20in%20dielectric%20elastomers-References.PDF
id ump-17654
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Local University
institution Universiti Malaysia Pahang
building UMP Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
language English
English
English
topic TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
spellingShingle TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
Shamsul, Zakaria
Electrical breakdown and mechanical ageing in dielectric elastomers
description Dielectric elastomers (DE) are used in various applications, such as artificial eye lids, pressure sensors and human motion energy generators. For many applications, one of the major factors that limits the DE performance is premature electrical breakdown. There are many approaches that have been reported to increase the breakdown strength of DEs such as compositing and pre-stretching. Some of the techniques, however, affect other parameters related to DEs negatively. For instance, the elastomers with hard filler particles (e.g. metal oxides) used as DEs experience difficulties to maintain their long-term mechanical reliability as they are susceptible to Mullins effects as the results of pre-stretching. Therefore, two strategies are developed in this thesis in order to produce DEs with high electrical performance and long-term electromechanical reliability. The first strategy is to study the mechanisms behind the electrical- breakdown of 'DEs and the second strategy is to investigate the long-term electromechanical reliability of DEs. In the first strategy, the electrothermal breakdown in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomers was modelled in order to evaluate the thermal mechanisms behind the electrical failures. From the modelling based on the fitting of experimental data, it showed that the electrothermal breakdown of the PDMS elastomers was strongly influenced by the increase in both relative permittivity and conductivity. In addition to that, a methodology in determining the parameters that affect the breakdown strength of the pre-stretched DEs was developed. Breakdown strength was determined for samples with and without volume conservation and was found to depend strongly on the strain and, the thickness of the samples. In order for DEs to be fully implementable in commercial products, the lifetime of elastomer materials needs further investigation. Therefore, in the second strategy, several DE parameters such as Young's moduli, breakdown strengths and dielectric permittivities of PDMS elastomers filled with hard filler particles were investigated after being subjected to pre-stretching for various timespans. The study showed that electromechanical reliability when pre-stretching was difficult to achieve with PDMS elastomers filled with hard filler particles. Subsequently, the long-term mechanical and electrical reliability was further investigated to the PDMS elastomers filled with the soft fillers (e.g. oils). Interestingly, the results also showed that soft fillers significantly influence the long-term electromechanical reliability of PDMS elastomers. However, despite the pre-stretched PDMS elastomers filled with hard and soft filler experience difficulties to maintain their long-term electromechanical reliability, the study paves the way for electromechanically reliable DEs by indicating that simply post-curing PDMS elastomers before use. Therefore in the last part of this thesis, the effect of post-curing was investigated for PDMS elastomer thin-films as a means of improving the long-term elastomer film electromechanical reliability. The PDMS elastomers were found to contain less than 2% of volatiles but nevertheless a strong effect from post-curing was observed. Furthermore, the determined electrical breakdown parameters from Weibull analyses showed that greater electrical reliability cotJld be achieved by post-curing the PDMS elastomers before usage, and this method therefore paves a way towards more electromechanically reliable DEs.
format Thesis
author Shamsul, Zakaria
author_facet Shamsul, Zakaria
author_sort Shamsul, Zakaria
title Electrical breakdown and mechanical ageing in dielectric elastomers
title_short Electrical breakdown and mechanical ageing in dielectric elastomers
title_full Electrical breakdown and mechanical ageing in dielectric elastomers
title_fullStr Electrical breakdown and mechanical ageing in dielectric elastomers
title_full_unstemmed Electrical breakdown and mechanical ageing in dielectric elastomers
title_sort electrical breakdown and mechanical ageing in dielectric elastomers
publishDate 2016
url http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/17654/
http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/17654/
http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/17654/1/Electrical%20breakdown%20and%20mechanical%20ageing%20in%20dielectric%20elastomers-Table%20of%20contents.PDF
http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/17654/6/Electrical%20breakdown%20and%20mechanical%20ageing%20in%20dielectric%20elastomers-Abstract.PDF
http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/17654/7/Electrical%20breakdown%20and%20mechanical%20ageing%20in%20dielectric%20elastomers-References.PDF
first_indexed 2023-09-18T22:24:31Z
last_indexed 2023-09-18T22:24:31Z
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spelling ump-176542018-07-25T08:04:38Z http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/17654/ Electrical breakdown and mechanical ageing in dielectric elastomers Shamsul, Zakaria TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General) Dielectric elastomers (DE) are used in various applications, such as artificial eye lids, pressure sensors and human motion energy generators. For many applications, one of the major factors that limits the DE performance is premature electrical breakdown. There are many approaches that have been reported to increase the breakdown strength of DEs such as compositing and pre-stretching. Some of the techniques, however, affect other parameters related to DEs negatively. For instance, the elastomers with hard filler particles (e.g. metal oxides) used as DEs experience difficulties to maintain their long-term mechanical reliability as they are susceptible to Mullins effects as the results of pre-stretching. Therefore, two strategies are developed in this thesis in order to produce DEs with high electrical performance and long-term electromechanical reliability. The first strategy is to study the mechanisms behind the electrical- breakdown of 'DEs and the second strategy is to investigate the long-term electromechanical reliability of DEs. In the first strategy, the electrothermal breakdown in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomers was modelled in order to evaluate the thermal mechanisms behind the electrical failures. From the modelling based on the fitting of experimental data, it showed that the electrothermal breakdown of the PDMS elastomers was strongly influenced by the increase in both relative permittivity and conductivity. In addition to that, a methodology in determining the parameters that affect the breakdown strength of the pre-stretched DEs was developed. Breakdown strength was determined for samples with and without volume conservation and was found to depend strongly on the strain and, the thickness of the samples. In order for DEs to be fully implementable in commercial products, the lifetime of elastomer materials needs further investigation. Therefore, in the second strategy, several DE parameters such as Young's moduli, breakdown strengths and dielectric permittivities of PDMS elastomers filled with hard filler particles were investigated after being subjected to pre-stretching for various timespans. The study showed that electromechanical reliability when pre-stretching was difficult to achieve with PDMS elastomers filled with hard filler particles. Subsequently, the long-term mechanical and electrical reliability was further investigated to the PDMS elastomers filled with the soft fillers (e.g. oils). Interestingly, the results also showed that soft fillers significantly influence the long-term electromechanical reliability of PDMS elastomers. However, despite the pre-stretched PDMS elastomers filled with hard and soft filler experience difficulties to maintain their long-term electromechanical reliability, the study paves the way for electromechanically reliable DEs by indicating that simply post-curing PDMS elastomers before use. Therefore in the last part of this thesis, the effect of post-curing was investigated for PDMS elastomer thin-films as a means of improving the long-term elastomer film electromechanical reliability. The PDMS elastomers were found to contain less than 2% of volatiles but nevertheless a strong effect from post-curing was observed. Furthermore, the determined electrical breakdown parameters from Weibull analyses showed that greater electrical reliability cotJld be achieved by post-curing the PDMS elastomers before usage, and this method therefore paves a way towards more electromechanically reliable DEs. 2016-01 Thesis NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/17654/1/Electrical%20breakdown%20and%20mechanical%20ageing%20in%20dielectric%20elastomers-Table%20of%20contents.PDF application/pdf en http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/17654/6/Electrical%20breakdown%20and%20mechanical%20ageing%20in%20dielectric%20elastomers-Abstract.PDF application/pdf en http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/17654/7/Electrical%20breakdown%20and%20mechanical%20ageing%20in%20dielectric%20elastomers-References.PDF Shamsul, Zakaria (2016) Electrical breakdown and mechanical ageing in dielectric elastomers. PhD thesis, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby. http://iportal.ump.edu.my/lib/item?id=chamo:98524&theme=UMP2