Creep and recovery behaviors of electrorheological elastomers and time-electric field superposition principle

The creep and recovery behaviors are of great importance for the electrorheological elastomers (EREs), while it is lack of relevant research in previous reports. In this work, the creep and recovery properties of silane coupling agent modified-TiO2 particles based EREs were systematically investigated, and the influence of particle content, electric field strength and temperature on creep and recovery behaviors were analyzed. The results indicate the creep and recovery behaviors of the EREs are affected by particle volume fraction and temperature obviously. The creep resistance of EREs are enhanced with the ascending electric field strength, and the blocking effect of particles on polymer chain segments is further clarified by fitting the creep data with Findley and Burgers model. The creep compliance curves of the EREs under various temperatures and electric field intensities were compared, and the curves were shifted along time axis to get a master compliance curve at a reference electric field strength according to the proposed time-electric field superposition principle (TESP). It is shown that TESP could provide an accelerated measuring technique for evaluating the long-term viscoelastic properties of EREs.