Learning Forum

[Saumya]

I want to simulate a few Dielectric layers sandwiched between soft electrodes. I know how to simulate Dielectric Elastomer Actuator(DEA) simply with direct application of voltage on its surfaces, but when I try to introduce electrodes, the simulation is somewhat distorted. Any idea on how to introduce an electrode in MEMS (Electrostatic Structural) Simulation?

[dlooman]

Generally the electrodes aren't modeled as the conductive plating is too thin to have any structural effect and a conductor does not have electrostatic properties. It's hard to know what the issue is that you ran into when you tried to model the electrodes. Was the electric field solution distorted or the structural solution? You could couple the volt dof at the electrode surfaces to represent the conductivity of the electrode. There's no advantage to modeling them from an electrical standpoint and no way to input their electrical conductivity. If you modeled them to get their structural effect on the device perhaps the distortion is due to buckling. If you tried to model the electrode conductivity with a weird permittivity value you might have introduced ill-conditioning.

[Saumya]

Both the electric field and the structural solution were off than what we would expect from it. I wanted to study the deformation of electrodes with the dielectric as the electrodes are soft. But as you mentioned I was unable to model the electrodes. Are you sure there is no way we can do that? I contacted Technical Support and they also are having a hard time figuring it out. In the documentation available, electrodes were never this important and constituted about 66% of the structure. You can see a simplified model below just to know how the structure looks like.
Please let me know if you have any idea how to model these electrodes. And yes I also modelled it with weird permittivity and the solution did not converge.
Best Saumya