Active vibration isolation with a dielectric elastomer stack actuator

This work presents the development, simulation and experimental investigation of a demonstrator for active vibration isolation with dielectric elastomers (DEs). The electromechanical behavior of the developed DE stack actuator is first characterized experimentally and a suitable simulation model is parametrized accordingly. The potential of the actuator for active vibration isolation is shown in a specially designed single axis test rig. The influence of different control strategies on the transmission behavior from the excited base to the mass is studied. A special aspect of the control strategy is the compensation of the specific nonlinearities. The analysis proves the potential of DE actuators for active vibration isolation purposes. The presented broadband active isolation could enable the use of DEs in various technical fields of application. (paper)