Dielectric elastomer sensor integrated in a jaw coupling: Modeling and simulation of mechanical and electrical behavior

In recent years, the demand for compact and inexpensive sensor systems for the digitalization of production processes has risen. One solution to meet this demand are sensor-integrating machine elements. These are machine elements with integrated sensors, whose geometry is not altered and thus allows an uncomplicated exchange of the conventional machine elements with the sensor-integrating machine elements. In the current work, a numerical model for a sensor-integrating jaw coupling is presented. The aim of the sensor-integration is to determine the deformation of the teeth of the gear rim with dielectric elastomer sensors (DES) and thus draw conclusions about the applied torque. In the following, a model for the DES is presented which is validated with experimental results. It was shown that the experimental and simulation results for the capacitance agree well, if only 50% of the change in area of the electrodes is taken into account. After that, a finite element model for the sensor-integrating jaw coupling itself is presented, which is created with the commercial software ABAQUS. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages for different positions of the sensor inside the gear rim of the jaw coupling are evaluated.