Homogenization of high-contrast dielectric elastomer composites (Q6992943)

The paper deals with the homogenization of a dielectric elastomer composite. This kind of materials have the interesting property of changing shape in response to electric simulation. In the present case the material is given by the periodic inclusion, with small period \(\varepsilon\), of particles whose size is also of order \(\varepsilon\). Moreover, these particles become very rigid when \(\varepsilon\) tends to zero (high contrast homogenization). The stress tensor is assumed to depend linearly on the strain tensor and quadratically of the electric field. However the electric potential does not depend on the elastic properties of the material. Thus, it is a triangular system. The authors prove that the effective material behaves as a homogeneous dielectric elastomer described by a decoupled system of PDEs.