Electroactive materials are most attractive for the development and design of smart systems and devices such as actuators and sensors. Typical examples are dielectric elastomers undergoing large strain deformations. Changes in shape can be induced by the action of an electric field, and vice versa. Electroactive polymers facilitate flexible and lightweight smart devices such as artificial muscles (stronger and faster than biological muscles relative to their weight), tunable lenses, acoustic devices and energy harvesting systems, to name but a few.
This contribution shall focus on related modelling and simulation approaches to predict the response of electroactive polymers. Different fields of application are considered, starting with experimental investigations of the time dependent behaviour of a VHB 4910 based electroactive polymer. Of particular interest are aspects of form finding, control and visualisation of electromechanical coupling properties which, as a long term goal, may contribute to the improved design of electroactive polymer based devices and systems.