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Updated: Mar 17, 2026

Experimental Methods for Investigation of Shape Memory Based Elastocaloric Cooling Processes and Model Validation
Published on: May 2, 2016
On nonlinear thermo-electro-elasticity
Markus Mehnert1, Mokarram Hossain2, Paul Steinmann1
1Department of Applied Mechanics , University of Erlangen-Nuremberg , Paul-Gordan Strasse 3, 91052 Erlangen, Germany.
Abstract:
Electro-active polymers (EAPs) for large actuations are nowadays well-known and promising candidates for producing sensors, actuators and generators. In general, polymeric materials are sensitive to differential temperature histories. During experimental characterizations of EAPs under electro-mechanically coupled loads, it is difficult to maintain constant temperature not only because of an external differential temperature history but also because of the changes in internal temperature caused by the application of high electric loads. In this contribution, a thermo-electro-mechanically coupled constitutive framework is proposed based on the total energy approach. Departing from relevant laws of thermodynamics, thermodynamically consistent constitutive equations are formulated. To demonstrate the performance of the proposed thermo-electro-mechanically coupled framework, a frequently used non-homogeneous boundary-value problem, i.e. the extension and inflation of a cylindrical tube, is solved analytically. The results illustrate the influence of various thermo-electro-mechanical couplings.
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