Electrical breakdown of dielectric elastomer and its lamination effect

Dielectric elastomers have potential as materials for artificial muscle actuators due to their excellent properties such as contractility. To understand the breakdown mechanism, breakdown tests of the dielectric elastomers were performed under different applied field waveforms (dc, ac, or impulse). In addition, the influence of the lamination number on the breakdown strength was investigated. Regardless of the applied field waveform, the breakdown strength decreases as the temperature increases. For a given temperature, the breakdown strength has the following order: impulse breakdown strength > dc breakdown strength > ac breakdown strength. Heating due to the dielectric loss under ac voltage application is considered to reduce the ac breakdown strength displayed at the RMS value, suggesting that a thermal process is responsible for breakdown. Under all applied waveforms, the breakdown strength increases as the lamination number increases.