We construct a constitutive law for dielectric elastomers featuring stiffening and a deformation dependent permittivity.
The constitutive law combines the hierarchical features of the multiple scales present in the structure of an elastomer.
We show that three well-known models of rubber elasticity are special cases of the elastic part of our constitutive law.
We study the sensitivity, electromechanical hysteresis, performance, and stability of dielectric elastomer actuators.
We construct stability maps for the operation of dielectric elastomer actuators.