Partial discharge monitoring in dielectric elastomer actuators

Dielectric elastomer actuators represent an interesting use of dielectric materials for two reasons. First, being a soft material that is designed to exert mechanical strains, the aging and dielectric breakdown mechanisms are often the result of mechanical phenomena less common in other high voltage insulating systems that use rigid dielectrics selected solely for their electrical properties. Secondly, these systems are rather unique in that realtime insulation health monitoring can provide meaningful insights to extend the working life of the system. Like most high voltage systems, dielectric breakdown results in the irreversible and catastrophic failure of the system. However, since the system can be used at lower operating voltages, albeit at a lower effectiveness, if the operating voltage can be lowered as the dielectric shows signs of aging, the useful life of the system can be extended. Partial discharge testing has been used to assess the health of the polymer films used in these systems, and the procedures for real-time monitoring of partial discharges are explored in this paper.