Analysis and manufacture of an energy harvester based on a Mooney-Rivlin–type dielectric elastomer

¹  Department of Astronautical Science and Mechanics, Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) - P.O. Box 301, No. 92 West Dazhi Street, Harbin 150001, PRC
²  Centre for Composite Materials, Science Park of Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) - P.O. Box 3011, No. 2 YiKuang Street, Harbin 150080, PRC

Corresponding authors: yj_liu@hit.edu.cn lengjs@hit.edu.cn

Received: 3 October 2009
Accepted: 26 April 2010

Abstract

We studied a typical failure model of a Mooney-Rivlin–type silicone energy harvester, illustrated the allowable area under equal-biaxial and unequal-biaxial conditions, calculated the energy generated in one cycle of an energy harvester, designed a new harvester, and conducted its primary tests. When the ratio between principal planar stretches p = 1 (λ₂ = pλ₁) and the material constant ratio k = 0.1 (C₂ = kC₁), the energy density generated by the harvester is 6.81 J/g. We think that these results can be used to facilitate the design and manufacture of dielectric elastomer energy harvesters.