Hysteresis in electroactive polymers

In this paper we present a model for the description of rate-independent hysteresis in Electroactive Polymers (EAPs). Our analysis is based on a model proposed by the authors for the description of damage and healing effects in polymeric materials and on a variational formulation for the resulting electromechanical equilibrium problem. The analysis of the class of equibiaxial strain, relevant for many actuation and energy harvesting devices, evidences that the model is effective and computationally efficient. The model shows a significant agreement with important experimental phenomena observed in EAP devices.