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Full-Text Articles in Mechanical Engineering

Electromechanical Coupling Behavior Of Dielectric Elastomer Transducers, Jianyou Zhou Sep 2015

Electromechanical Coupling Behavior Of Dielectric Elastomer Transducers, Jianyou Zhou

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Dielectric elastomer transducers with large deformation, high energy output, light weight and low cost have been drawing great interest from both the research and industry communities, and shown potential for versatile applications in biomimetics, dynamics, robotics and energy harvesting. However, in addition to multiple failure modes such as electrical breakdown, electromechanical instability, loss-of-tension and fatigue, the performance of dielectric elastomer transducers are also strongly influenced by the hyperelastic and viscoelastic properties of the material. Also, the interplay among these material properties and the failure modes is rather difficult to predict. Therefore, in order to provide guidelines for the optimal design …


Temperature Dependence Of Shear Speed In Micellar Fluid, E.G. Sunethra Kumari Dayavansha Jan 2015

Temperature Dependence Of Shear Speed In Micellar Fluid, E.G. Sunethra Kumari Dayavansha

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Wormlike micellar (WM) fluids are viscoelastic and can support shear waves. Phase transitions of the micellar aggregates are temperature dependent and can manifest as sharp changes in the shear wave speed as a function of temperature. Thus, shear waves provide a good tool for detecting the existence of phase transitions. In this work, the variation of shear speed with temperature of 200mM CTAB/NaSal micellar fluid in a 5:3 ratio was studied. The dependence of shear wave speed on time between fluid synthesis and measurement was also investigated. Shear wave propagation through the fluid was observed as a time varying birefringence …