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MHBM Shariff; Jose Merodio; Roger Bustamante; Aymen Laadhari.
A Non-Second-Gradient model of nonlinear Electro-Elastic bodies with fibre stiffness. Symmetry. Accepted, 2023.

    Laadhari_Electro-Elastic Modelling_23

The study of the mechanical behaviour of fibre-reinforced electro-active polymers (EAPs) with bending stiffness is beneficial in engineering for mechanical design and problem solving. However, constitutive models of fibre-reinforced EAPs with fibre bending stiffness do not exist in the literature. Hence, to enhance the understanding of the mechanical behaviour of fibre-reinforced EAPs with fibre bending stiffness, the development of a relevant constitutive equation is paramount.
In this paper, we develop a constitutive equation for a non-linear non-polar EAP, reinforced by embedded fibres, in which the elastic resistance of the fibers to bending is modeled via the classical branches of continuum mechanics without using the second gradient theory, which assumes the existence of contact torques. In view of this, the proposed model is simple and somewhat more realistic, in the sense that contact torques do not exist in non-polar EAPs.