Optimizing the Energy Harvesting Cycle of a Dissipative Dielectric Elastomer Generator for Performance Improvement

This paper optimizes the energy harvesting cycle of dissipative dielectric elastomer generators (DEGs) to explore possible approaches for improving the energy harvesting performance. By utilizing the developed theoretical framework, the dissipative performance of the DEG with a constant voltage cycl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Polymers 2018-12, Vol.10 (12), p.1341
Main Authors: Fan, Peng, Chen, Hualing
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Capacitors
Charge transfer
Circuit design
Deformation
Efficiency
Elastomers
Electric fields
Electrodes
Energy
Energy conversion
Energy dissipation
Energy harvesting
Flux density
Optimization
Power supply
Time constant
Viscoelasticity
Viscosity
Wave power
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Summary:This paper optimizes the energy harvesting cycle of dissipative dielectric elastomer generators (DEGs) to explore possible approaches for improving the energy harvesting performance. By utilizing the developed theoretical framework, the dissipative performance of the DEG with a constant voltage cycle is analyzed, which shows good agreement with the existing experimental data. On this basis, we design a novel energy harvesting cycle and a corresponding energy harvesting circuit in which a transfer capacitor is utilized to store the charge transferred from the DEG. Then, the energy conversion performance of the DEG with the novel energy harvesting cycle is investigated. The results indicate that both the energy density and conversion efficiency are improved by choosing a high voltage during the discharging process and that as the R-C time constant increases, the enhancement effect of the voltage increases and then approaches to the saturation. In addition, there is an optimal transfer capacitor that can maximize energy density or conversion efficiency, and the optimal transfer capacitor increases with the increase in the R-C time constant. These results and methods are expected to guide the optimal design and assessment of DEGs.
ISSN:2073-4360
2073-4360
DOI:10.3390/polym10121341