Study of Potential Factors and their Interaction in Dielectric Elastomer based Cell Stretcher

Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) offer a high degree of stretchability along with biocompatibility, making them valuable for biomedical applications. However, in order to effectively control the desired strain response of the DEA, it is crucial to identify the factors that influence the extent of actuation. This study focuses on the strain optimization of an equibiaxial DEA by employing design of experiment methods to investigate the influence of different factors. DEAs and their applications rely on various parameters. In this study, the effect of selected parameters are examined using a full factorial model and a fractional factorial model approach. Through these methods, the significant impact of pre-stretch and electric field on the resulting strain is highlighted. Furthermore, the interactions of thickness with diameter and pre-stretch with electric field are analysed, yielding half-effect coefficients equal to 0.25, 0.68, 0.1 and 0.18, respectively.