Mechanical Modeling of Interpenetrating Polymer Network Reinforced Acrylic Elastomer

Interpenetrating polymer network reinforced acrylic elastomers (IPN) offer outstanding performance in free-standing contractile dielectric elastomer actuators. This work presents the verification of a recently proposed material model for a VHB 4910 based IPN [1]. The 3D large strain material model was determined from extensive data of multiaxial mechanical experiments and allows to account for the variations in material composition of IPN-membranes. We employed inflation tests to membranes of different material composition to study the materials response in a stress state different from the one that was used to extract the material parameters. By applying the material model to finite element models we successfully validated the material model in a range of material compositions typically used for dielectric elastomer actuator applications. In combination with a characterization of electro-mechanical coupling, this 3D large strain model can be used to model IPN-based dielectric elastomer actuators.